ABSTRACT

Much of the existing economic research on the conservation of biological diversity focuses on the costs and benefits of preventing the extinction of species that have aesthetic, intrinsic, or indirect use value to humans through supporting the ecosytem in which they live (Swanson, 1995; Pearce and Moran, 1994). Several issues related to the conservation of crop genetic diversity, motivated by fears that potentially valuable genes or genetic combinations will disappear from farmers’ fields as higher-yielding modem varieties are adopted (Harlan, 1972; Frankel, 1970), pivot on whether society, or certain individuals in society, should forego the welfare benefits of today’s productivity gains for the uncertain benefit of future generations of producers and consumers.