Land use and biodiversity

Efforts to arrest biodiversity depletion are hampered by a number of factor s beyond low public salience. These include uncertainty as to how to measur e "biodiversity" and its loss, and as to the costs and benefits of various responses. Moreover, an ideal response requires widespread multilateral coo peration, which, in the light of diverging national priorities, is difficul t to achieve. This paper therefore presents a menu of possible reforms in t he relevant legal-institutional framework that could be deployed to temper the rate of biodiversity decline. The strategic variables include, among ot hers, subsidy practices, real property protection, intellectual property La ws, trade laws, host nation ownership rights, land use restrictions, and ta xes.