Payments, penalties, payouts, and environmental ethics: a system dynamics examination

Abstract

A generic system dynamics model was developed as an explicit thinking tool to investigate systems of payments for environmental services (PES) and possible feedback effects regarding environmental ethics. Healthy ecosystems may justify charges for environmental services, but damaged ecosystems will require payouts funded by other mechanisms, perhaps by penalties on ecodamage. Any payouts made may influence environmental ethics, but the direction of such influence is dependent on the level of payout, the influence that payouts have on the switchover to ecofriendly uses, and the changing attitudes of payout recipients. Payouts can cause a switchover to ecofriendly activities. If that switchover also reinforces a favorable environmental ethic it can lower the overall payout level needed to maintain ecofriendly resource-use activities.

Keywords

• environmental ethics
• management tools
• models
• cost-benefit analysis
• ecosystem management
• resource utilization