How do you put a price on the value of nature? That’s the question Indian banker Pavan Sukhdev and his colleagues are seeking to answer in their international project on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), which published its latest report last month. The challenge, as Sukhdev sees it, is how to address the “economic invisibility of nature,” which allows the economic value of ecosystems to be ignored by governments and businesses.
Keen to guard its ranking as Asia's happiest country, Bhutan has hosted a climate summit and an international symposium accompanied by an exhibition in the Kingdom's capital Thimphu – far away from the hustle and bustle of world's metropolitan cities – in run-up to a landmark UN conference in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9, 2011.
Over the past 50 years, 60 percent of all ecosystem services have declined as a direct result of the conversion of land to the production of foods, fuels and fibers.
"This should come as no surprise," say seven of the world's leading environmental scientists, who met to collectively to study the pitfalls of utilizing markets to induce people to take account of the environmental costs of their behavior and solutions. "We are getting what we pay for."
We are pleased to announce the 5th issue of the UNEP Policy Series on Ecosystem Management titled ‘''Sustaining forests: investing in our common future”
This paper discusses the public sector's role in PES internationally. In general, the public sector's role in ecosystem services markets is both critical, and evolving. The public sector roles are evolving in three distinct ways:
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has approvoved the first four projects to access incentive funds available for sustainable forest management (SFM) and REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, as well as conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stock) under the GEF Incentive Mechanism for Forests.
