Bioeconomics is the application of capital theory to ecological and biological resources. The study of bioeconomics links natural and economic science. This linkage is fundamental to maximize the net present value of earth’s resources or manage these resources sustainably. This chapter illustrates how capital theory, in the context of bioeconomics, can be applied to ecological and biological resources to recover their values as capital assets and simultaneously provide an optimal investment path. The chapter also discusses the need for increasing ecological and economic realism in bioeconomic models and highlights directions for increasing realism that are likely to yield the greatest advances.
Fenichel, Eli, Gopalakrishnan, S., and Bayasgalan, Onon, ‘Bioeconomics: Nature as Capital’, in the Handbook on the Economics of Natural Resources, Eds., David Layton and Robert Halvorsen, (Forthcoming)