Principle 4: Recognizing potential gains from management, there is
usually a need to understand and manage the ecosystem in an
economic context. Any such
ecosystem-management programme should:
(a) Reduce those market distortions that adversely affect biological
diversity;
(b) Align incentives to promote biodiversity conservation and
sustainable use;
(c) Internalize costs and benefits in the given ecosystem to the
extent feasible.
Rationale:
The greatest threat to biological diversity lies in its replacement by
alternative systems of land use. This often arises through market
distortions, which undervalue natural systems and populations and
provide perverse incentives and subsidies to favour the conversion of
land to less diverse systems. Often those who benefit from conservation
do not pay the costs associated with conservation and, similarly, those
who generate environmental costs (e.g. pollution) escape responsibility.
Alignment of incentives allows those who control the resource to benefit
and ensures that those who generate environmental costs will pay