On Incorporating Ecological Thresholds in Farm-level Economic Models of Resource Management

In this paper, the increasing importance being placed on improving the interface between economic and ecological models is noted and commended. However, several serious deficiencies in the current state of economic models of farm-level resource management still exist. In particular, overlooking the ecological phenomena of threshold effects and multiple stable states is highlighted as a potential problem in models of this nature. Special forms of the objective function and Hamiltonian function which account for ecological thresholds are proposed and developed. The intent, rather than to develop a new technique, is to suggest a simple modification to the optimal control framework to accommodate these types of ecological processes. Practical problems in the application of the model, including data requirements, are noted.