About
NRE uses rigorous analysis and clear communication to help clients, decision-makers, stakeholders, and the public understand all the many ways in which ecosystems contribute to the economic well-being of workers, families, businesses, and communities.
A full understanding of the economic importance of natural resources
We recognize that an ecosystem contributes to a community’s overall economic well-being through three channels:
Providing inputs to commercial activities, near and far.
Adding to (or subtracting from) the quality of life enjoyed by local residents and visitors.
Affecting the cost of living, doing business, and meeting social obligations in the local vicinity and around the world, for this generation and those of the future.
We especially consider the interactions between those goods and services derived from an ecosystem that are sold in markets and those that are not, the costs (externalities) different resource uses impose on those who do not benefit from the uses, and the influence these interactions and costs have on resource-management decisions and economic outcomes.
Ernie Niemi
Ernie specializes in applying the principles of cost-benefit analysis, economic valuation, and economic-impact analysis to describe the economic importance of natural resources. He formed Natural Resource Economics, Inc. in 2012. From 1978 to 2012, he managed economic and policy analysis for the consulting firm, ECONorthwest, where he was a co-owner, vice president, and senior economist. He also has taught cost-benefit analysis and economic development for the University of Oregon’s Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management, and taught high-school science as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda.
He has described the economic importance of market and non-market goods and services derived from diverse ecosystems: dryland, montane, riparian, lake, river, forest, grassland, urban, savannah, estuarine, marine, coastal plain, island.
His analyses have addressed resource-management programs for water quantity, quality, and reliability; economic security for at-risk human communities; conservation of at-risk fish, wildlife, and plant species; management of natural-resource risks; adaptation of households, businesses, and communities to expected changes in climate; management of public lands and waters; diversion of surface and ground water for irrigation, livestock, domestic, and municipal-industrial uses; maintenance or enhancement of in-stream flows; water conservation; forest restoration; and floodplain management.
His descriptions of the economic importance of natural resources have covered marginal and aggregate estimation of market value and social value (including cultural value); impacts of resource-management alternatives on commercial and non-commercial (including subsistence) components of surrounding economies; and the distribution of positive and negative economic outcomes among existing groups and across current and future generations.
Much of his work has entailed describing the market and non-market competition for natural resources, identifying externalities associated with different resource uses (costs and benefits that accrue to those outside the decision-making process), and tracing the effects of the externalities on competitive outcomes.
He has presented analytical findings on resource-management issues to congressional, judicial, arbitrative, administrative, multi-national, and scientific/professional bodies.
Education
Master of City and Regional Planning, Harvard University, 1978
Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, University of Oregon, 1970
Advisory Positions
Commission on Ecosystem Management of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Technical Advisory Committee on Land Use and Economic Development for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development
Citizen’s Task Force for Developing a Strategic Plan for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Water Marketing Task Force for the Oregon Water Resources Department
Technical Team for the Northern Spotted Owl Implementation Team for the Washington Board of Forestry
Social, Cultural, and Economic Technical Team, Missouri River Ecosystem Restoration Plan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Climate Leadership Initiative of the University of Oregon
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s Large-Cost Fire Independent Review Panel
