What does Economics have to do with the Great Barrier Reef?

There is a misconception that economics is only concerned with financial impacts and  values. However environmental economics, a growing field of economics, is the application of theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world.

In February 2010, an article by McCook et al was published online in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Sates of America), discussing both the environmental and economic benefits of a network of marine reserves in the Great Barrier Reef.  In general, the article summarizes the evidence, which indicates that the large-scale network of marine zones in the Great Barrier Reef are proving to be an excellent investment in both socio-economic and environmental terms. Marxan was used as a tool in the rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef in 2003 and 2004.

The BCMCA is using Marxan, and planning to put its new sister software, Marxan with Zones, to the test. Both are decision support tools that use spatial information about natural resources and human uses to generate possible solutions to complex planning problems, which are inherent in both seascape and landscape environments. The BCMCA is using the best available data in British Columbia to run exploratory analyses that will provide examples of what these tools can produce here at home. This month, the BCMCA initiated the analysis work using only ecological data to start. Marxan projects involve several steps and processes, starting with calibration, to ensure that the output is both robust and consistent.

To read the full article about the Great Barrier Reef, click here.