The price of nature
The UN project shows us how expensive biodiversity loss has become – but the danger is that it becomes something tradeable
• Economic report into biodiversity crisis reveals price of consuming the planet
“You can’t value nature per se, other than to say it’s priceless, and you’re part of nature and you would not exist were you not,” declares the man in charge of the biggest attempt ever to measure nature’s worth.
“But what you can do,” he continues, “is measure the economic value of services that come to you from nature.”
The speaker is Pavan Sukhdev, study leader of the UN’s three year project to measure The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). The project should show us all how expensive the global destruction of the natural world has become and – it is hoped – persuade us to slow down.
Written by Paul Dalby, 23 May 2010
