Ecological-economic Modelling in the Development of Strategies and Environmental Policy Instruments for Species Protection

If species protection schemes are to be successful, the ecological and economic conditions must be understood, the schemes need to undergo ecological-economic assessment, and then they need to be efficiently implemented in the form of environmental policy instruments. However, experience has taught us that it is not sufficient to simply carry out a separate ecological and economic analysis, and then place the findings side by side. Instead, ecological and economic aspects must be taken into account in an integrated manner.

This can be carried out for example with the help of ecological-economic modelling. A general model has been developed which explicitly takes account of economic and ecological aspects in the spatial application of species protection measures. Furthermore, using the example of the protection of the white stork, research was carried out into how the compensation payments should be best allocated spatially and over time. This analysis has been generalised and an ecological-economic modelling procedure to determine efficient and effective compensation payments for the protection of species has been developed. Further research will be devoted to use this procedure to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of existing compensation payment schemes.