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Conservation Context and Early Warning:
Commodities Studies and the Opportunity Cost of Conservation
CEP researches market trends and technological developments in the production of major tropical commodities, including coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cattle, petroleum, soybeans, and plantation timber. Together, these commodities account for millions of hectares of forest conversion in the tropics and are poised to contribute to massive deforestation in the future unless concerted efforts are made to alter current production trajectories. The studies shed light on the impacts of land use and economic development on conservation in the tropics. They call for a range of strategies to directly protect critical habitats in regions where commodity production currently takes place and to curb the spread of cultivation to new areas.
CEP also studies the opportunity cost of conservation in terms of land values as well as the cost of conservation activities. These data, derived from the commodities studies and other research, help explain the economic context in which conservation must occur and guide the development of new tools for addressing major threats. | |
| |  | | Bioscience publishes four articles by CABS authors on defining strategies to create, maintain, and fund protected areas.
View/Download AbstractsThe latest issue of Species, newsletter of IUCN-SSC, is available. It details the state of over 100 species and includes contributions by CABS authors.
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