7.7.2008: Forschung international

“If we truly want to manage our ecological security, we must measure ecosystems and biodiversity – scientifically as well as economically”




Sukhdev Pavan

“The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” was presented at CBD COP 9 in Bonn 29 May 2008 by the author Mr. Pavan Sukhdev. The work was launched in 2007 by the Minister for Environment in Germany and the Commissioner responsible for Environment in the European Commission to promote a better understanding of the true economic value of the benefits we receive from nature and to offer economic tools that take proper account of this value. The report presented is the interim report of the work which will continue in 2009 and 2010.


Nature provides human society with a vast diversity of benefits such as food, fibres, fuel, clean water, healthy soil, protection from floods, protection from soil erosion, medicines, carbon capture and many more. Though our wellbeing is totally dependent upon these "ecosystem services" they are predominantly public goods with no markets and no prices, so are rarely detected by our current economic compass.
The report demonstrates the huge significance of ecosystems and biodiversity and the threats to human welfare if no action is taken to reverse current damage and losses. And again, as with climate change, it is the world's poor who are most at risk from the continuing loss of biodiversity. Findings on the cost of inaction suggest that, with a “business as usual” scenario, by 2050 we will be faced with serious consequences:

• 11% of the natural areas remaining in 2000 could be lost, chiefly as a result of conversion for agriculture, the expansion of infrastructure, and climate change;
• almost 40% of the land currently under low-impact forms of agriculture could be converted to intensive agricultural use, with further biodiversity losses;
• 60% of coral reefs could be lost – even by 2030 – through fishing, pollution, diseases, invasive alien species and coral bleaching due to climate change.

Incorporating the true value of biodiversity and ecosystem services into policy decisions is the ultimate aim of the work being carried out by Pavan Sukhdev and his team. There are ethical choices involved in particular between present and future generations and between people in different parts of the world.
The fundamental requirement is to develop an economic yardstick that is more effective than GDP for assessing the performance of an economy. National accounting systems need to be more inclusive and measure the significant human benefits that ecosystems and biodiversity provide. By no longer ignoring these benefits such systems would help policymakers adopt the right measures and to design appropriate financing mechanisms for conservation.



Keywords:
Economy, biodiversity, ecosystem, COP, policy, CBD

Art der Publikation:
Bericht

Literatur:
Pavan Sukhdev (study leader), (2008) : The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity (TEEB). An interim report. Welzel and Hard, Wesseling, Germany. 68 p.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/index_en.htm

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