The Effect of Climate Change on Wetlands and Waterfowl in Western Canada: Incorporating Cropping Decisions into a Bioeconomic Model

Patrick Withey and Gerrit van Kooten

No 2011-06, Working Papers from University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group

Abstract: We extend an earlier bioeconomic model of optimal duck harvest and wetland retention in the Prairie Pothole Region of Western Canada to include cropping decisions. Instead of a single state equation, the model has two state equations representing the population dynamics of ducks and the amount of wetlands. We use the model to estimate the impact of climate change on wetlands and waterfowl, including direct climate effects as well as land use change due to biofuel policies aimed at mitigating climate change. The model predicts that climate change will reduce wetlands by 47-56 percent from historic levels. Land use change is expected to reduce wetlands by 45 percent from historic levels, whereas direct climate effects will range from a reduction of 2-11 percent, depending on the future climate scenario. This result indicates that models that neglect the effect of land use change underestimate the effect of climate change on wetlands. Further, wetlands loss is geographically heterogeneous, with losses being the largest in Saskatchewan.

Keywords: bioeconomic modeling; wetland protection; wildlife management; climate change; biofuels (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C13 C61 Q10 Q16 Q25 Q54 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-res
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://web.uvic.ca/~repa/publications/REPA%20worki ... kingPaper2011-06.pdf Final version, 2011 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Climate Change on Wetlands and Waterfowl in Western Canada: Incorporating Cropping Decisions into a Bioeconomic Model (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rep:wpaper:2011-06

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by G.C. van Kooten ().