Economic interest associated with land management

The following post has two assignments namely;

1.Economic interest associated with land management

Part 1: The economic interest associated with land management is supposed to ensure that economic interests do not supersede the need to conserve and protect the ecosystems. The economic philosophy of land management is based on sustainable development where economic interests do not have a substantial negative impact on the ecosystem (Bates, 1993). The conservation philosophy concerns with the allocation, use, and protection of natural resources and its effect on the ecosystem is the maintenance of the diversity and health of the ecosystem. The preservation philosophy is based on the need to retain the stability and order of the past by controlling aspects of the present (Bates, 1993). The effect on the ecosystem is that there is the maintenance of balance as well as the health of the ecosystem. Part 2: The Bundy standoff has been one of the most controversial issues associated with public land use. The standoff is between Cliven Bundy, a rancher using public land, and the Bureau of Land Management which is the agency overseeing management of the land. The laws of this land are that the bureau is in charge of managing the land and also placing protected status on certain lands. According to the law, grazers are supposed to pay certain grazing fees, but Bundy has declined since the BLM is pushing ranchers away from public land. The decision by BLM to push ranchers from public land is based on a conservationist perspective due to the need to protect the habitat of the desert tortoise. The conservationist efforts include the need to eliminate cattle grazing in the land as well as off-roading (Fuller, 2016). From this conflict, BLM is taking the right approaches, and the grazers need to realize the imperative of conservation of land in supporting endangered species. Write short comment for the two samples in samples.docx.

2. Externalities

1. Consider the market for bee hives in a rural area a. Why might bee hives exhibit positive externalities in a rural area (hint: think of bee's primary ecological role)? b. Draw a graph for the market for beehives, labeling the demand curve, the social value curve, and supply curve c. Indicate the market equilibrium quantity of beehives sold and the socially optimal quantity that should be sold. Give an intuitive explanation for why these differ d. Describe one command and control policy and one incentive-based policy that could help correct this externality 2. We generally seem to think that levels of many pollutants in society are too high a. If society wishes to reduce overall pollution by a certain amount, why is it efficient to have different amounts of reduction coming from different firms? b. Command-and-control policies often rely on uniform reductions in pollution across firms. Why might these approaches generally have a hard time targeting the firms that should be making the biggest reductions? c. How might incentive-based regulations such as a corrective tax or tradable permit system target firms that should undertake the biggest cost reductions? 3. Read the NY Times article titled "A Conservative Climate Solution': Republican Group Calls for Carbon Tax" from Feb 7th (available on Canvas under Files>Readings) and answer the following questions: a. Draw a graph of the regulated (i.e., taxed) market for fossil fuels, assuming that the damages are constant and roughly equal to the $40 tax per ton suggested in the article. Show the supply, demand, and social cost curves, and label both the optimal price P* and quantity q* as well as what the market price and quantity would have been in the absence of regulation. b. Given what we have already discussed about the science of climate change, do you think that it is reasonable to assume that damages are constant as CO2 increases? Why or why not? c. Which of the standard for decision making (efficiency, safety, sustainability) do the politicians in this article seem to be relying on the most? Make explicit reference to THREE pieces of information contained in the article, and defend your answer. d. What part of this article relates to the concept of a "double dividend"? How do the Republican lawmakers and their environmental opponents disagree in this regard? 4. Imagine that there are three industrial firms in Haze Valley: Firm Initial Pollution Level Cost of Reducing Pollution by 1 unit A 70 units $20 B 80 units $25 C 50 units $10 The government wants to reduce pollution to 120 units, so it gives each firm 40 tradable permits. a. Who sells permits and how many do they buy? Who buys permits and how many do they sell? Explain why the sellers and buyers are each willing to do so. b. What is the total cost of pollution reduction if we allow firms to trade as in part (a)? How much higher would the costs of pollution reduction be if the permits could not be traded?