The implications of mainstream economics for wildlife conservation

The most important problems facing wildlife conservation are the growing hu man population and its affluence, and the concomitant requirement for resou rces to accommodate this growth. A pressing question is how to maintain wil dlife numbers and diversity when prime wildlife habitat is needed for agric ulture, resource extraction, or urban expansion. Solutions to this problem may not be forthcoming because mainstream (generally meaning neoclassical) economic logic and policies are often in direct conflict with the goals of wildlife science. There is a great need for wildlife scientists to broaden their view and sophistication of economics and also to expand the wildlife field to encompass the larger social farces that are changing the well-bein g of wildlife species. In what follows we elaborate on 1) what we perceive to be the underlying problem of wildlife conservation; 2) why our current s ystem of economic valuation will, in the long term, undercut the goal of wi ldlife conservation; and 3) how to incorporate these concepts into wildlife curricula and the wildlife profession.