NEWSROOM
National
Coastal Conference Set For New Orleans
May
2, 2007
Economists, sociologists
and policymakers from federal, state and local governments will
be attending the second national forum on socioeconomic research
in coastal systems this month in New Orleans.
Sponsored by the LSU
AgCenter’s Center for Natural Resource Economics and Policy,
the conference, which will give participants a chance to discuss
the social and economic factors affecting coastal management,
will be held May 20-23 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in the Crescent
City.
Conference organizers
say the topic – Challenges of Socioeconomic Research in
Coastal Systems – is particularly important in light of
the damage associated with the 2005 hurricanes.
"The economic
importance of natural capital is widely documented, and nowhere
has this been more clearly demonstrated than in the coastal states
of the northern Gulf of Mexico," said Dr. Rex Caffey, director
of the LSU AgCenter’s CNREP and one of the organizers of
the conference.
The program will feature
nearly 90 oral and poster presentations from natural resource
economists, resource managers and policy professionals from 16
U.S. states and nine foreign countries, Caffey said.
Individuals
may register for the conference on the Internet at www.cnrep.lsu.edu/2007/registration.htm.
The fee is $275.
The conference will
focus on the opportunities and challenges of social and economic
research in coastal systems – with particular emphasis on
economic valuation and its use in developing coastal zone management
policies.
Organizers say they’ve
planned a balanced mix of technical and nontechnical presentations.
Session topics include
market and nonmarket valuation of coastal resources, environmental
benefit/cost analyses, economic linkage/impact assessment, input/output
modeling and comparative assessments of resource management and
restoration policy.
In addition to CNREP,
a unit of the LSU AgCenter’s Department of Agricultural
Economics and Agribusiness, sponsors include the Louisiana Sea
Grant College Program; the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection
and Restoration Act; the Farm Foundation; the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s SERA-IEG 30 committee; the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration; and the Shaw Group.
<<
Back to 2007 News Page
