SVN3M - Sustainability

Natural Capital Activity

“Paper Clip Trees” and Sustainable Yield

Name: ______Partner: ______

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
David Copperfield. Chapter xii., by Charles Dickens

Start with 10 “paper clip trees”, your natural capital. These happen to be special, renewable “paper clip trees”. Each year 1 new “paper clip tree” is regenerated. There are three different harvesting scenarios. For each scenario calculate the # of “paper clip trees” left after harvesting and regeneration. Show all your work to get full marks.

Scenario 1:
What happens if you harvest your “paper clip trees” at a rate of 2 “paper clip trees” a year?
YEAR / # of Paper Clip Trees
0 / 10
1 / 10 – 2 +1 =9
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
/ Scenario 2:
What happens if you harvest your “paper clip trees” at a rate of 3 “paper clip trees” a year?
YEAR / # of Paper Clip Trees
0 / 10
1 / 10 – 3 +1 = 8
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

SVN3M - Sustainability

Scenario 3:

Some scientists come up with a new-fangled way of doubling the “paper clip trees” regeneration rate to 2 (genetically-engineered(GE) “paper clip trees”?). What happens if you harvest “GE paper clip trees” at a rate of 3 “GE paper clip trees” a year? Or harvest at 2 “GE paper clip trees” a year?

Harvest 3 “GE paper clip trees” a year
YEAR / # of Paper Clip Trees
0 / 10
1 / 10 – 3 +2 = 9
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
/ Harvest 2 “GE paper clip trees” a year
YEAR / # of Paper Clip Trees
0 / 10
1 / 10 – 2 +2 = 10
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

SVN3M - Sustainability

SVN3M - Sustainability

Conclusion

1.a)For scenario 1, what eventually happened to the “paper clip trees”?

b)What would be a sustainable harvesting rate? Explain.

2.How did the “paper clip tree” population compare between scenario 1 and scenario 2 after a number of years of harvesting? Be sure to use the term sustainable yield.

3.Compare what happened to the “GE paper clip tree” population with the different harvesting rates in scenario3. Be sure to use the term sustainable yield.