Ecological Conservation: The Problems of Targeting Policies and Designing Instruments

Three decades of effort to control the obvious and familiar forms of pollution has produced a policy toolkit of theoretical power and practical flexibility. However, the toolkit is not as well-suited to addressing the challenges posed by preserving ecological diversity and integrity. This paper aims to illuminate some of the obstacles to policy design for ‘ecological conservation’ by: (1) identifying a number of analytical characteristics that were key to creating successful policy in the pollution control setting; (2) considering the applicability of these characteristics to the ecological conservation setting; and (3) discussing the implications of these differences for policy design. The paper concludes with recommendations on sidestepping these difficulties.