In Costa Rica, only a few beaches remain that are nesting grounds for sea turtle
ID: 1090713 • Letter: I
Question
In Costa Rica, only a few beaches remain that are nesting grounds for sea turtles. Some of those beaches have communities situated near them; traditionally, the local people collected the turtle eggs and sold them for their purported aphrodisiac powers. As a result, sea turtle populations became endangered. To protect the sea turtle populations, the Costa Rican government gave each family in these villages ownership of a portion of the beach to do with as the family pleases, including the harvesting and selling of sea turtle eggs. Sea turtle populations have started to increase. The economic rationale for this action has to do with the differences between public, common, and private goods. Select an example of your choosing that would display how the government could take an action (or has actually taken one) that might change how a resource would be treated in the future. Take a look at common resources (such as the turtles) and use your own example to explain the economic rationale for a positive result.
Explanation / Answer
Q.) Select an example of your choosing that would display how the government could take an action (or has actually taken one) that might change how a resource would be treated in the future.
Project Tiger - an initiative by Indian government to save tigers
Over the past century the number of tigers in India has fallen from about 40,000 to less than 4,000 (and possibly as few as 1,500). Relentless poaching and clearing of habitat for agriculture have been the primary drivers of this decline, though demand for tiger skins and parts for "medicinal" purposes has become an increasingly important threat in recent years.
However the news is not all bad. Research published last year showed that if protected and given sufficient access to abundant prey, tiger populations can quickly stabilize. With India's large network of protected areas and continued funding from conservation groups like the Wildlife Conservation Society, the findings provide hope that tigers can avoid extinction in the wild.
The biggest threat to tigers in India is depletion of their chief prey like deer, wild pigs and wild cattle by local people. As a result although about 300,000 square kilometers of tiger habitat still remains, much of it is empty of tigers because there is not enough food for them to survive and breed successfully.
Q.)Take a look at common resources and use your own example to explain the economic rationale for a positive result ?
1.) All efforts should fully tap the potential in wildlife tourism and at the same time take care that it does not have adverse impact in wildlife and protected areas. The revenue earned from increased tourism should be used entirely to augment available resources for conservation.
2.) If the tigers go extinct, the entire system would collapse. For e.g. when the Dodos went extinct in Mauritius, one species of Acacia tree stopped regenerating completely. So when a species goes extinct, it leaves behind a scar, which affects the entire ecosystem. Another reason why we need to save the tiger is that our forests are water catchment areas.
When we protect one tiger, we protect about a 100 sq. km of area and thus save other species living in its habitat. Therefore, it