and individual incentives generating wetlands loss, and he estimates the social 

 preservation benefits and opportunity costs for Massachusetts wetlands. He uses 

 these estimates to develop criteria for granting conversion permits. Gupta 

 believes that fill and conversion permits should be granted by the State if the 

 net market benefits from drainage outweigh the nonmarket preservation benefits. 

 Roughly, conversion returns span a $300-$70,000 per acre (capitalized value) 

 range, while preservation benefits lie somewhere in the $300-$60,000 per acre 

 range. 



7. Haslam, S.M. 1973. The management of British wetlands: part I. Journal 

 of Environmental Management 1(1) :303-320. 



This paper presents no formal economic analysis or new quantitative 

 economic data. The author lists the wide variety of wetland outputs (for 

 example, reeds for thatched roofs) that man has learned to use throughout the 

 ages. Given suitable changes in technology, man may one day find wide use for 

 the store of natural products provided by the globe's wetlands. 



8. Pope, R.M., and J.G. Gosselink. 1973. A tool for use in making land 

 management decisions involving tidal marshland. Coastal Zone Management 

 Journal l(l):65-74. 



This is one of the papers that formulates an energy theory of value for 

 estimating the total social loss from drainage and conversiop of tidal wetlands. 

 The energy theory of value estimates net preservation benefits for acres of tidal 

 marshland as the per acre fuel oil equivalent of the solarj energy embodied in 

 the production of above ground plant biomass ("ecosystem life support func- 

 tions"). The authors also develop a tertiary waste treatment social benefits 

 conferred estimate for tidal marshland acres. 



They apply the two sets of wetlands preservation benefits estimates-- 

 $2,500 per acre per annum for the tertiary treatment function, $4,150 for the 

 life support function—generated by these valuation techniques, to the problem 

 of estimating the true social opportunity cost of building a four lane highway 

 through a marshland. 



9. Gosselink, J.G., E.P. Odum, and R.M. Pope. 1974. The value of the tidal 

 marsh. Louisiana State University, Center for Wetlands Resources Report 

 No. LSU-SG-74-03, Baton Rouge. 30 pp. 



Gosselink, Odum, and Pope, define and value the "ecosystem life support 

 functions" introduced by Pope and Gosselink (see [8]). This paper, like the 

 earlier work by Pope and Gosselink, also uses a single factor theory of value. 

 Hence, it is hardly surprising that Gosselink, Odum, and Pope find preservation 

 benefits for tidal marshes that are much larger than those obtained through 

 conventional analyses. The entire per acre per year values of the finfish and 

 shellfish harvests of the tidal marshes of various southern Atlantic coastal 

 States is imputed to the marshes. All of the private outlays for hunting and 

 sport fishing are also imputed to the marshes. The resulting average marginal 

 product for this amalgam of outputs and services was estimated to be about $100 

 per acre per annum (in early 1970's dollars) for all the regional tidal marshes. 



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