Environmental economics and the role of economic instruments in coastal and marine environmental management

Abstract

There is a widespread misconception that economists and ecologists are locked in ideological battle each armed with conflicting objectives. Ecologists, stressing environmental mis-use, are often portrayed as paying little attention to the economic implications of the solutions they advocate. Economists, on the other hand, being trained to look at the monetary costs and benefits, and often believing in “the invisible hand of the market”, tend to be depicted as being oblivious to the ecological implications of the activities they encourage.