Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Aug 23;108(34):13951-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1012291108. Epub 2011 Aug 22.
This study explores the potential of index insurance as a mechanism to finance community-based biodiversity conservation in areas where a strong correlation exists between natural disaster risk, keystone species populations, and the well-being of the local population. We illustrate this potential using the case of hornbill conservation in the Budo-Sungai Padi rainforests of southern Thailand, using 16-y hornbill reproduction data and 5-y household expenditures data reflecting local economic well-being. We show that severe windstorms cause both lower household expenditures and critical nest tree losses that directly constrain nesting capacity and so reduce the number of hornbill chicks recruited in the following breeding season. Forest residents' coping strategies further disturb hornbills and their forest habitats, compounding windstorms' adverse effects on hornbills' recruitment in the following year. The strong statistical relationship between wind speed and both hornbill nest tree losses and household expenditures opens up an opportunity to design wind-based index insurance contracts that could both enhance hornbill conservation and support disaster-affected households in the region. We demonstrate how such contracts could be written and operationalized and then use simulations to show the significant promise of unique insurance-based approaches to address weather-related risk that threatens both biodiversity and poor populations.
本研究探讨了指数保险作为一种为基于社区的生物多样性保护提供资金的机制的潜力，这种机制在自然灾害风险、关键物种种群以及当地人口福祉之间存在很强相关性的地区。我们使用泰国南部布多-素盖帕迪雨林中犀鸟保护的案例来说明这一潜力，该案例使用了 16 年犀鸟繁殖数据和 5 年反映当地经济福祉的家庭支出数据。我们表明，强风会导致家庭支出减少和关键巢树损失，这直接限制了筑巢能力，从而减少了下一个繁殖季节招募的犀鸟雏鸟数量。森林居民的应对策略进一步干扰了犀鸟及其森林栖息地，使风灾对次年犀鸟繁殖的不利影响更加严重。风速与犀鸟巢树损失和家庭支出之间的强统计学关系为设计基于风的指数保险合同提供了机会，这既可以加强犀鸟保护，又可以支持该地区受灾家庭。我们展示了如何编写和运作这些合同，然后使用模拟来展示独特的基于保险的方法在应对威胁生物多样性和贫困人口的与天气相关的风险方面的巨大潜力。
