PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 39: Late Breaking and Newsworthy Posters
Friday, August 12, 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Economic prosperity, biodiversity conservation, and the environmental Kuznets curve.

Mills, Julianne^*,1, Waite, Thomas ¹, ¹ The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

ABSTRACT- Many conservationists contend that economic growth and biodiversity conservation are incompatible goals. Some economists contest this viewpoint, arguing that wealthier countries have the luxury of investing more heavily in efforts to conserve biodiversity. Under this assumption, they expect a U-shaped relationship between per capita wealth and proportion of species conserved. We test this environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) using estimates of per capita GDP and deforestation rates (index of biodiversity threat) for 35 tropical countries. A prior analysis (Dietz and Adger 2003) using conventional regression techniques failed to provide any support for the parabolic relationship predicted by the EKC hypothesis. Using quantile regression, we provide evidence for this relationship. However, this finding should not be construed as evidence that increasing wealth reliably facilitates biodiversity conservation. We highlight several misleading aspects of this support for an EKC.

Key words: biodiversity conservation, environmental Kuznets curve, quantile regression, species-area relationship