A software tool for designing cost-effective compensation payments for species conservation

Compensation payments to farmers who apply species-friendly farming activities are a common instrument to reconcile nature conservation with agriculture in Europe. However, there is insufficient knowledge on how to design cost-effective payments, i.e. payments that achieve maximum conservation for a given budget. Therefore, an ecological-economic modelling procedure was developed which is able to determine cost-effective compensation payments as a function of the budget. This procedure is implemented in the software EcoEcoMod. The software is available on the web and consists of a descriptive part and a simulation tool. It illustrates how the procedure works on the example of the conservation of Large Blue butterflies. The user can select a conservation budget and a conservation measure (various mowing regimes) and simulate the ecological outcome of that choice. Comparing the ecological benefits of a given budget, the user can identify the cost-effective mowing regime and the corresponding compensation payments for that budget. The software can serve as a tool for education, for demonstration, and for decision support and can stimulate further discussions about cost-effectiveness in conservation management.