Following a keynote speech at the Forest and Bird Dunedin Biodiversity Crossroads Symposium on Saturday, retired conservation scientist Theo Stephens said there was no way of putting ''meaningful prices on environmental degradation'' at present, which meant the environment essentially was free to developers.
''Because there's no price on it and it comes for free, developers are inclined to do rather a lot of developing - a whole lot more than what economists would say is socially optimal.''
Dr Stephens said the ''usual'' societal response was to implement environmental regulations.
''However, there is a huge power imbalance between private interests and the public interests defending the environment. You see that every day in the Environment Court or in lobbying with Government.''
He used court cases between mining companies and people wanting to protect the environment as an example.
''You'll find in every case, they have expensive lawyers and they have consultants there to argue their case, and on the other side, there's a few volunteers.''
Dr Stephens believed there was a ''misalignment'' between the public interest in the environment and the private interest in the environment, and a similar misalignment with Government and agency interest in the environment, which tended to parallel that of private interests.
Dr Stephens was one of 10 speakers at the symposium. The day concluded with a panel discussion titled ''30 Years since Save Aramoana: Conservation effort and advocacy in Dunedin - what has worked and what hasn't''.
