Efficient nonanthropocentric nature protection

Abstract

This paper analyzes nature protection by a social planner under\ndifferent,utilitarian’ social welfare functions. For that purpose we\nconstruct an integrated model of the economy and the ecosystem with\nexplicit consideration of nonhuman species and with competition between\nhuman and nonhuman species for land and prey biomass. We characterize\nand compare the efficient allocations when social welfare is\nanthropocentric (only consumers have positive welfare weights), when\nsocial welfare is biocentric (only nonhuman species have positive\nwelfare weights) and when social welfare is nonanthropocentric (all\nspecies have positive welfare weights). Not surprisingly, biocentric\nsocial welfare calls for suspending all economic activities. It is more\nimportant, however, that both anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism\nmake the case for nature protection through different channels, though.\nOur analysis suggests that one may dispense with the concept of\nnonanthropocentric social welfare provided that in the anthropocentric\nframework the consumers’ intrinsic valuation of nature is properly\naccounted for.