Economics of the Environment, studying marine parks (Essay Sample)

Economics of the Environment
[Name]
[Institution affiliation]
Question 1
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are essential in the conservation of various resources including cultural and natural ones. This is a vital aspect in tackling management from the ecosystem perspective. All over the world, various MPAs have been established to help increase the number of fish and other marine animals, keep their productivity constant or increasing, and enhance affordable marine fisheries. "Empirical studies have led to the conclusion that there is a tremendous increase in biomass within the Marine Protected Areas (Beaudoin, 2010). The conservationists have proposed that ocean enclosures have the ability to increase the population of fish population regardless of any management that may be carried on the outside.
There are various reasons supporting the establishment of MPAs. For instance, in the USA there are various MPAs, which have been established to help in various ways including conserving natural and cultural heritages as well as promoting the whole production process. The MPAs are fully protected by various laws in which restrain some activities that tend to have some negative impact on the extractive activities (Hassan, 2005).
Though commonly regarded as a solution to various market and property failures in the fishing industry, MPAs restrict the extent to which fishing is to be done and may result to increase in outside profits because of spillovers. If the MPA established exceed the optimum number or coverage, then the level of profits to be realized will reduce drastically. It should be noted that if there is improper coordination of fishing activities, appropriate MPAs will be a good accompaniment to property right fisheries, thereby, resulting in increased fishing activities and thus profits in the entire fishing industry (The Allen Consulting Group, 2009).
2314575284480Increased population of fish and other marine animals of benefit to humans00Increased population of fish and other marine animals of benefit to humans
18503904286885Need to conserve natural and cultural heritages, need to promote the production process, and need to increase marine population00Need to conserve natural and cultural heritages, need to promote the production process, and need to increase marine population3877310300990Increased biomass of fish and other marine animals00Increased biomass of fish and other marine animals719455313055Proper marine ecosystem management and increased profits00Proper marine ecosystem management and increased profits10845801123315004025265112331500249936031045150010845802031365 Marine Protected Areas (MPA)00 Marine Protected Areas (MPA)259715083693000
Question 2
We will take a look into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in which various approaches are used by the management to enable meet the goals of the organization. According to Hoisington (2013), these include:
* Protecting the interests of the Great Barrier Reef Marine park & Area from a friendly environmental approach perspective and managing the activities in such a way that that all activities in the park can be sustained ecologically.
* Making use of the Marine Park ecological and making the areas surrounding the coast ecologically sustainable as well.
* Making use of the available human and artificial resources to promote environmental policies, regulation and preservation outcomes.
* Working from the perspective that engagement, recognition, and cooperating with others are crucial in meeting the desired outcome.
* Educating the surrounding communities and other users of the resources how to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
* Working in collaboration with other authorities to ensure there is improved general welfare in the surrounding community.
* Making use of a risk management approach in management of the park.
In order to ensure the above goals are met, there are several bodies, which have been established to look into the ways that the park manages its economical resources, and this helps to ensure smooth flow of activities in the park. Most of the bodies are Governmental Authorities and Non Governmental organizations, in this study we are going to look into the efforts of the Australian and Queensland governments (Smith, 1996).
The state and federal governments undertake strategic assessment with the intention of ensuring that the Great Barrier Reef maintains all the values, which resulted into its declaration a world heritage area, and ensure it continues to improve for the better each day. This assessment is carried on the management system of the park because this is the backbone to effective operation and improvement of welfare of the park. The two governments undertake an extensive study and assessment of the Great Reef Barrier and zones that surround it. This assessment is carried out in an environment-friendly manner, which ensures the ecological setting is not interfered with in any way.
This strategic assessment is carried out to help figure out, plan and effectively manage all the upcoming and existing and upcoming risks in the best way possible so as to ensure the responsible management implements policies, which help in protecting and managing the rather unique ecological environment around the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. These goals can be achieved through the following strategies among others:
* Carrying out investigations on the efficacy of the existing management strategies on the Great Barrier Reef World heritage area, and
* Carrying out general assessment on the existing and planned policies and planning in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and the surrounding zones then making analysis on the most likely indirect, direct, and cumulative impacts.
One of the most recognized organizations in carrying out studies on Australian Marine Parks Authority is Hassall & Associates. They carry out effective studies into the various economic values, which are commonly associated with the various uses of marine parks in Australia.
The studies include; reviewing all the relevant local and international literature, which relates to use; production and consumption of all goods and services, which are in any way linked to the marine park; developing economic models to be used in estimating the values of all direct and indirect goods and services obtained from the marine park, and identifying all the existing information and design processes for gathering additional information to be used in making estimation of the values obtained from economic models.
There are various activities, which can be classified into direct market and these include; commercial charter & fishing, and various non-market activities including amenities, education, research & recreation, indirect uses or ecosystem values including waste management and protection of habitats.
There are various ways through which these values can be estimated, these include producer and consumer surpluses, final cost incurred by the government, and regional economy multipliers. We then get the exact economic value of the marine parks by calculating the marginal changes of the values as a result of protection offered to the parks.
In the past, there have been various studies seeking to estimate the use values of the marine parks, however, most of them focused on just one or a few out of the various uses of marine parks thus failed to estimate the marginal changes, this resulted in an incorrect valuation figure.
Question 3
There are various advantages attached to the above methodology. Some of them will be discussed thereafter. By collecting all the literature that relates to the production and consumption of all goods and services that closely relate to parks, there are higher chances that the output includes fewer errors and bears more accuracy. The collection of all the direct and indirect data is very essential in giving realistic final figures and thus promoting accuracy, it simply means the entire economic value of the park to all users and beneficiaries is catered for. By identifying all the existing information and design processes, then accuracy of data collected is improved to a large extent. The value to be obtained from the economic models will be more accurate, and thus decisions that are more realistic will be made (Kumar, 2010).
There are various limitations in the approach; some of them cannot the overcome, while some can be overcome. The most notable limitation is that it requires a lot of resources and time to...