Environmental Benefits of Medfly Sterile Insect Technique in Madeira and their Inclusion in a Cost-Benefit Analysis

This study was funded by the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. It presents an economic model and the methods selected for the evaluation of environmental benefits of the Mediterranean fruit fly sterile insect technique (SIT) in Madeira (Madeira-Med). It quantifies the key costs and benefits of Madeira-Med to carry out an economic analysis to assess the economic returns of SIT use in Madeira, including the benefits obtained from environmental savings. Recent cost-benefit analyses for proposed insect pest eradication or suppression programmes have included some environmental factors; however, a systematic valuation of these factors, as developed in this study, had not been carried out in previous analyses.