ABSTRACT
Wild life and wild resources are most at threat where environmentalists and economists have excluded them from the mainstream economy, rendering them priceless but worthless. In this chapter the author argues for bringing wild species back into the economy, shaping institutions and markets so that wild life is highly competitive, and maximising its value to landholders and communities. He introduces conservationists to invaluable economic concepts. He describes how wealth is created and shared, and why these conditions are missing for wildlife. He then explores theories of price, free markets, market failure (i.e. financial versus economic prices), and regulation in the context of wildlife governance. Wildlife is not worthless, and the author shows how well-designed combinations of privatisation and collective action provide a viable approach to conservation that complements conventional top-down public governance of wild resources.
