How to avoid extinction of populations optimally exploited (Q1089284)

A stochastic optimal control approach is introduced which quantifies the risk of extinction of the population associated with the optimal exploitation. Optimal harvesting strategies can be determined subject to the constraint that the risk of extinction does not exceed a given limit. By the example of a logistic growth it is demonstrated that the purely economic optimization delivers an unnecessarily high risk of extinction which can be lowered considerably without a substantial loss of profit.