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10
Biodiversity provides a range of ecosystem services that
support people’s livelihoods and contribute to and underpin
the economy. Too often, however, their value is unrecognised
or under-recognised by market prices and
signals and ignored in decision making by policy makers,
local administrators, businesses and/or citizens. As a result,
nature is almost invisible in the choices we make at
every level. We have been steadily drawing down our natural
capital without understanding its value – or what it
would really cost to replace the services nature provides
for free.
Chapter 10 pulls together the insights and analysis from
across the TEEB report. It links the current biodiversity
crisis with its economic and human implications to concrete
actions for measuring biodiversity and its value, integrating
it into decision making and responding through
a flexible range of instruments, from market solutions to
regulation to investments in natural capital.
10.1 explains why valuing ecosystem services
makes economic sense and contributes to better
decision making. It shows how values are becoming
more visible but that market limitations underline the need
for robust public policies. 10.2 focuses on the need for
and benefits of measuring to manage our natural
capital. Better measurement of biodiversity and ecosys-
RESPONDING TO THE VALUE OF NATURE
Responding to the value
of nature
“I believe that the great part of miseries of mankind are brought upon them
by false estimates they have made of the value of things.”
tem services can improve links to national accounts and
macro-economic indicators, leading to better informed
management of natural capital. 10.3 presents the main
arguments for investing in natural capital, providing
examples of potential gains related to climate mitigation
and adaptation, healthy ecological infrastructure, an expanded
network of protected areas and restoration of degraded
ecosystems, and showing how such investment
can support jobs and alleviate poverty. 10.4 highlights the
need to improve the distribution of costs and benefits
for reasons of equity, efficiency and effectiveness.
Getting the right people to pay (polluters, resource users)
and the right people to share in the benefits (those helping
to supply ecosystem services) is critical and requires appropriate
incentives, regulations and clearly-defined rights
and responsibilities. Specific consideration is given to
practical aspects of managing economic transition and
overcoming resistance to change.
Lastly, the scope for natural capital to deliver prosperity is
discussed in 10.5. This looks at policies that can make
a major difference using existing funds (e.g. subsidy reform)
and identifies policy windows of opportunity (e.g.
international collaboration on REDD-Plus). The chapter
concludes with a vision of the road ahead – leading not
only to a low carbon economy but also to a resource efficient
economy that values nature and respects its limits.
TEEB FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 10: PAGE 2
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790
“There is a renaissance underway, in which people are waking up to the
tremendous values of natural capital and devising ingenious ways of incorporating
these values into major resource decisions.”
Gretchen Daily, Stanford University