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Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature

2002; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 297; Issue: 5583 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.1073947

1095-9203

Andrew Balmford, Aaron Bruner, Phillip J. Cooper, Robert Costanza, Stephen Färber, Rhys E. Green, Martin Jenkins, Paul Jefferiss, Valma R. Jessamy, Joah R. Madden, Kat Munro, Norman Myers, Shahid Naeem, Jouni Paavola, Matthew Rayment, Sérgio Rosendo, Joan Roughgarden, Kate Trumper, R. Kerry Turner,

Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy

On the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it is timely to assess progress over the 10 years since its predecessor in Rio de Janeiro. Loss and degradation of remaining natural habitats has continued largely unabated. However, evidence has been accumulating that such systems generate marked economic benefits, which the available data suggest exceed those obtained from continued habitat conversion. We estimate that the overall benefit:cost ratio of an effective global program for the conservation of remaining wild nature is at least 100:1.