Economics Workshop and Economic Considerations in Critical Habitat Designation

In October 2007, the Pacific Rivers Council, San Francisco State University, Ecotrust, and the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy sponsored a workshop: Economics and Ecosystems: A Workshop on Improving Economic Analysis for Habitat Protection.  View the workshop agenda.  This workshop was designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the use of economic analysis for describing the qualitative and quantitative benefits of habitat protection.  The goal was to facilitate a high-level, peer-to-peer discussion of how best to describe the full range of ecosystem values.

The workshop discussed economic analysis in the context of designation of critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act.  Unlike decisions to list species under the Act, decisions to designate critical habitat are made after considering economic impacts.  PRC has long argued that economic impacts include both the costs and benefits of a designation; in other words the economic impact must reflect the net cost or net benefit of designation.  The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), however, have frequently ignored the economic benefits that arise from critical habitat protections.

Read the Consensus Statement from the workshop.

Read our press release about the Consensus Statement.

Read a news story about the Consensus Statement.

Read a letter to Interior Secretary Salazar about the consensus statement's relevance to Obama's pledge to restore scientific integrity in the executive branch.

Read our comments on the bull trout critical habitat designation, which further discuss the need to evaluate economic benefits in addition to economic costs when making these ESA decisions.

When the FWS proposed a new critical habitat designation in 2005 for the red-legged frog, PRC commissioned ECONorthwest to review the Service’s draft economic analysis. EcoNorthwest's report cites the reasons why the analysis was not adequate to inform the designation progress, and offers recommendations for correcting the analysis’ flaws.  FWS has now prepared a new draft economic analysis in conjunction with its 2008 proposal to revisit the red-legged frog's critical habitat designation.  Read the comments we submitted in response to the new economic analysis.