The economics of protecting tiger populations: Linking household behavior to poaching and prey depletion

R. Damania; R. Stringer; K. U. Karanth; B. Stith

Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70025697

The economics of protecting tiger populations: Linking household behavior to poaching and prey depletion

R. Damania·R. Stringer·K. U. Karanth·B. Stith

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is classified as endangered and populations continue to decline. This paper presents a formal economic analysis of the two most imminent threats to the survival of wild tigers: poaching tigers and hunting their prey. A model is developed to examine interactions between tigers and farm households living in and around tiger habitats. The analysis extends the existing literature on tiger demography, incorporating predator-prey interactions and exploring the sensitivity of tiger populations to key economic parameters. The analysis aims to contribute to policy debates on how best to protect one of the world's most endangered wild cats.

Explore related subjects

Land Economics Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

R. Damania, R. Stringer, K. U. Karanth, B. Stith. 2003. The economics of protecting tiger populations: Linking household behavior to poaching and prey depletion. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70025697

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2026

Are mobile device location data a substitute for travel cost surveys?

Mobile device location data offer a low-cost alternative for measuring visitation to outdoor recreation sites and are known to correlate with official visitation counts. Less is known about whether these data can recover recreation demand and consumer surplus comparable to surveybased methods. We compare travel cost models estimated using mobile device and survey data for 17 U.S. National Park Service sites. Results are mixed. We examine the roles of aggregation and sampling bias and use LASSO regression to assess whether sample and site characteristics explain discrepancies.

conterminous United States↗

USGS2025

Impact of land subsidence on housing sale values: Evidence from the San Joaquin Valley, California

This study assesses the impact of land subsidence on housing sale values in the San Joaquin Valley, California. The study utilizes home sale transactions and vertical land-surface displacement data from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar techniques. Using fine-scale fixed effects, matching, as well as a repeat-sales approach, our results indicate that land subsidence resulted in a 2.4% to 5.8% reduction in housing sale values, with the largest reductions occurring in areas where substantial subsidence occurred. Such findings may have implications for groundwater management and can potentially help inform policy design to help mitigate the causes and impacts of land subsidence.

California↗

USGS2019

Safety in numbers: Cost-effective endangered species management for viable populations

We develop a bioeconomic model to identify the cost-effective control of an invasive species (rain-bow trout) to achieve a population viability goal for an endangered species (humpback chub) in the Grand Canyon of the U.S. southwest. The population viability optimization problem is no-toriously difficult to solve due to a probabilistic restriction on joint outcomes (survival) over many periods. We develop a novel dynamic programming solution approach that is fast and forgoes the simulation method requirement of imposing structure on the policy function. We also investigate an adaptive management model that incorporates learning about uncertain bi-ological dynamics.

Grand Canyon↗