01/09/2025: 26th BIOECON Conference – CALL FOR PAPERS
This conference will bring together researchers and policymakers working at the interface of economic development, conservation, and environmental policy
Our mission is to improve decision-making and policies for the benefit of biodiversity and people
The Dragon Capital Chair in Biodiversity Economics is a 5-year program (2020-2025) homed in the LEEP Institute, Department of Economics, at the University of Exeter Business School. Professor Ben Groom, holds this post, which is generously funded in collaboration with Dragon Capital, an investment manager based in Vietnam and focused on Frontier Asia.
Work focuses on the study of the economic and financial aspects of biodiversity guided in part by the findings of the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity and international commitments under the Convention on Biodiversity. The Dragon Capital team, together with our partners and networks, are dedicated to interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and reducing the impact of economic activities on biodiversity. We undertake frontier research on the causes of biodiversity loss, the role of nature based solutions to climate change, the natural capital value and associated values of biodiversity, and the measurement of biodiversity, to guide policy goals and measure biodiversity impacts and risks.
Our agenda hopes to influence public policy, economic incentives and allocations in the wider economy – so that biodiversity becomes visible and salient to decision-makers, where usually it is invisible and neglected. Doing so will foster sustainability and reflect society’s role as stewards of biodiversity for future generations. We achieve this via world leading publications, engagement in stakeholder events, and advising governmental and multilateral bodies and private sector groups on policy.
Our research combines empirical insights and theoretical advancements, with a primary aim to inform and shape public policy and influence day-to-day decisions in a way that accounts for biodiversity. Our research is deeply aligned with the evolving global policy landscape, which features pivotal agreements such as the Montreal-Kunming Agreement under the Convention on Biodiversity. As the Dasgupta Review makes plain, the economy is embedded in the environment, and biodiversity is to ecosystems what trust is to society, a kind of glue that holds the environment and hence economies together. Things fall apart if we lose biodiversity. This is what motivates the Dragon Capital Team.
Professor Ben Groom
Latest
01/04/2025: Student Conference on Conservation Science
Loris André will discuss his co-authored paper with Ben Groom and Frank Venmans on the cost of a statistical species at the Student Conference on Conservation Science.
25/03/2025: Conference on Benefit-Cost Analysis: Distributional Issues and International Experience
Conference on Benefit-Cost Analysis: Distributional Issues and International Experience organised by Scientific Council for Cost-Benefit Analysis at France Stratégie.
