Time discounting and the decision to protect areas that are near and threatened or remote and cheap to acquire.

摘要: Should conservation organizations focus on protecting habitats that are at imminent risk of being converted but expensive or more remote areas less immediately threatened where a large amount land can be set aside? Variants this trade-off commonly arise in spatial planning. I used models land-use change near deforestation frontier to examine trade-off. The optimal choice protect was determined by how decisions taken today accounted for ecological benefits and economic costs actions would occur sometime the future. an discount rate weight these costs. A favored areas, whereas large, positive habitat current frontier. decision over also affected influence factors had landowners' decisions, technological change, heterogeneity landscape. How through time warrants careful consideration when specifying objectives. It may provide niche axis along which differentiate themselves competing donor funding other support.