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