Paying to keep whales alive?

A case study of biodiversity protection

Can threatened resources be protected by consumer power rather than legislation? A recent idea suggests that, if enough consumers believe certain resources are worthy of protection, those resources can ‘pay for their own survival’. This article describes a recent proposal to price the right of whales to live, and assesses its prospects for success. The case study is relevant to A-level topics that cover biodiversity under threat, sustainability and resource consumption

Noel Castree

A humpback whale breaching off the coast of Western Australia

Should valuable natural resources pay for their right to survive on the planet? This may seem a strange question, but many environmental policy makers believe that they should. This article explores a new scheme designed to protect whale species from harvesting for human consumption or scientific research. The scheme aims to harness the ‘market power’ of consumers who are willing to pay for whales not to be caught.

To understand why the scheme has been devised we need to look at recent attempts to reduce the global catch of whales, and why they have been ineffective.