Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Concept

= "TEEB – is a set of accounting tools that puts a price on the ecosystem services provided by nature and used by industry". [1]

Discussion

John Thackara:

"The thinking behind TEEB is that knowing the price of ecosystems will cause companies to look after them, and many governments and companies are signing up to its framework.

There is troubling evidence, however, that this well-intentioned project will backfire. TEEB’s numbers, acting like blood in the water, have attracted the attention of predatory investors bent on ‘financializing’ environmental assets – converting natural resources such as land, ecosystems, and riversheds into abstract commodities that can be ‘securitized’ – and then traded. What’s especially deadly about this process is that these financial products contain powerful incentives to accelerate the rate of exploitation of the world’s soils, water and biodiversity. For EKO Asset Management, an early mover in this nature grab, “sustainability means running the global environment like a corporation”." (http://www.doorsofperception.com/most-read/a-whole-new-cloth-politics-and-the-fashion-system/)

More Information

Report

* Report: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. United Nations Environment Programme, 2011.

Assigning value to the environment's eco-services?

"The groundbreaking TEEB report (formally “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity”) report counts the global economic benefits of biodiversity. It encourages countries to develop and publish "Natural capital accounts" tracking the value of plants, animal, water and other "natural wealth" alongside traditional financial measures -- in the hope of changing how decisions are made to take into account damage or preservation of biodiversity."

(http://www.ted.com/speakers/pavan_sukhdev.html)

Discussion

By Vasanthi Hariprakash:

"here is a concept that is gaining currency among governments. Called ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’ (TEEB). It is a study commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), based on the principle that ‘Natural resources are economic assets, whether or not they enter the marketplace.’ The 500-plus TEEB team that has economists, ecologists and researchers, has been on the project that puts a money-value to the ‘services’ that forests and ecosystems offer us, if we had to pay for them everytime we use them.

While an agency as credible as TEEB has put out the actual price of resources considered invaluable, there is no market or ‘buyer’ who can pay for these services. The countries and governments who mostly ‘own’ these forests therefore have no ‘profit’ to show against their forest cover on their balancesheet. Which is why, most often, they have no incentive to let forests stay as forests.

On the other hand, changing the land use pattern, that is converting forest land into, say, agriculture land or real estate, gives them far more tangible wealth. And therein lies the story of why across the world, forests have been simply disappearing." (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/166966/treating-forests-economic-assets-tangible.html)