Rio Tinto Lecture 2017

Resource Extraction versus Environmental Protection: oil sands and caribou in Canada

A public lecture by Professor Vic Adamowicz, Vice Dean, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, and Professor, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta.

This case study will illustrate some of the challenges of endangered species recovery, focussing on caribou in Alberta, Canada, and the threats they face from the oil sands industry.

In any jurisdiction involved in resource extraction there are concerns about the environmental impacts of the extractive activities, including impacts on natural systems, human health, scenery, recreational enjoyment, and other “ecosystem services”. Caribou have been listed as threatened in Canada for sometime, but strategies for their protection are complex and could have significant impacts on forestry and energy sectors. Issues of the development of recovery goals, the economic costs and benefits of caribou recovery, the importance of the timing of recovery, and the policy options that can help achieve recovery at least cost, will be addressed.

Economic analysis has been used to identify options and strategies for reducing adverse impacts and reducing the requirement for costly recovery to maintain the species.

Professor Vic Adamowicz is the Vice Dean in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, and a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta. He obtained his BSc and MSc from the University of Alberta and his PhD from the University of Minnesota. His research has focused on the economic valuation of environmental amenities and ecosystem services and the incorporation of environmental values into economic analysis, with applications to forestry, water quality, air quality, endangered species and agriculture. His research involves the analysis of choice behavior with applications to food demand, recreation and environmental quality.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy II – Social Sciences (awarded in 2007). He became a Fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society in 2011. He was awarded the Canadian Institute of Forestry’s Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award in October, 2004. In 2001-2002 Adamowicz was a Gilbert White Visiting Fellow at Resources for the Future in Washington DC, and in 2011 he was an Erik Malmstem Visiting Professor at the University of Gothenburg.

The Rio Tinto Lecture at UWA is part of the Rio Tinto-UWA Education Partnership, established in 2013.

This event is sponsored by Rio Tinto, UWA Faculty of Science, and the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies.