Natural Resource Damage Assessment: The Role of Resource Restoration

Abstract

To date, methods for determining compensation for spill-related natural resource damages have focused on the monetary value of resources damaged by a spill or scientific analyses of resource restoration. This paper suggests an alternative approach that integrates legal concepts of public trust, economic definitions of compensation, and scientific approaches to restoration. The approach is based on a definition of restoration as resource-based compensation-a remedy for damages wherein alternative restoration actions are identified that provide equally valued resources as those lost due to the spill. This provides an explicit balancing between the benefits obtained from restoration and losses due to the spill to assure that the public is made whole. The least costly alternative that makes the public whole is selected as the cost effective alternative.