Study: Tradable Permits Might Aid Wildlife

European ecologists are studying whether tradable permits, as now used in environmental endeavors, might also help wildlife.

A group of economists and ecologists from Britain, the Netherlands and Germany said such a technique appears promising but probably only for cultural landscapes such as farmland.

The European Commission has expressed an interest in using tradable permits for wildlife conservation in a technique it calls habitat banking. The idea is that each region sets a target for how much land it wants to keep for wildlife conservation and then leaves it to the free market to find the most cost-effective way of accomplishing that goal. If a developer wants to destroy valuable habitat, he or she must purchase a permit to do so from someone who has created a piece of valuable habitat elsewhere.

European law requires developers who destroy valuable habitat to recreate something equivalent elsewhere. But according to Florian Hartig, a researcher from Germany’s Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, using tradable permits is more flexible.

The idea was presented last week in Paris during the European Science Foundation’s first EuroDIVERSITY conference.