A team of researchers including ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director, Dr. Leah Gerber, recently published a paper titled “Thinking Beyond the Moratorium: Testing the Feasibility of a Hypothetical Whaling-Conservation Permit Market in Norway” in Conservation Biology.

The article explores a new conservation management approach for protecting whales: a cap-and-trade system for harvests. This concept is dependent on conservationists being willing to pay for permits to protect the species. In this article, the authors model the potential outcomes of various market scenarios while acknowledging the cultural and ethical customs embedded in whaling.