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Journal ArticleDOI

The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital

TLDR
In this paper, the authors have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations, for the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion (10^(12)) per year, with an average of US $33 trillion per year.
Abstract
The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth's life-support system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the planet. We have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations. For the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion (10^(12)) per year, with an average of US$33 trillion per year. Because of the nature of the uncertainties, this must be considered a minimum estimate. Global gross national product total is around US$18 trillion per year.

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Journal ArticleDOI

Use of SPOT 5 for mapping seagrasses: An application to Posidonia oceanica

TL;DR: The SPOT 5 satellite was launched in May 2002; it provides multispectral imagery with a spatial resolution of 10 m and fused imagery with 2.5 m as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI

Migration and global environmental change

TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify five families of drivers which affect migration decisions: economic, political, social, demographic and environmental drivers, and propose a new framework for understanding the effect of environmental change on migration.
Journal ArticleDOI

Natural resource management in mitigating climate impacts: the example of mangrove restoration in Vietnam

TL;DR: The authors quantifies the economic benefits of mangrove rehabilitation undertaken, inter alia, to enhance sea defence systems in three coastal districts of northern Vietnam, and shows that such activities have even higher benefit cost ratios with the inclusion of the indirect benefits resulting from the avoided maintenance cost for the sea dike system which the mangroves stands protect from coastal storm surges.
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University culture and sustainability: Designing and implementing an enabling framework

TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual framework for designing interventions and measuring and monitoring progress in building and embedding a university sustainability culture is proposed, based on previous studies in the cultural change and sustainability literature.
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Sustainability as a Conceptual Focus for Public Administration

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that sustainability should define the conceptual focus for the field of public administration in the coming decade, and that the challenge of governance, and thus, public administration, is to sustain each of these systems on its own while maintaining an appropriate balance among them.
References
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Book

Using surveys to value public goods : the contingent valuation method

TL;DR: Mitchell and Carson as discussed by the authors argue that at this time the contingent valuation (CV) method offers the most promising approach for determining public willingness to pay for many public goods, an approach likely to succeed, if used carefully, where other methods may fail.
Journal ArticleDOI

Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems.

Gretchen C. Daily
- 23 Jan 1998 - 
TL;DR: Nature's Services brings together world-renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines to examine the character and value of ecosystem services, the damage that has been done to them, and the consequent implications for human society.
Book

For The Common Good: Redirecting The Economy Towards Community, The Environment And A Sustainable Future

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the scale of human activity in the biosphere has grown too large and that change is needed in the approach to economic activity: "correction and expansion a more empirical and historical attitude less pretense on being science and willingness to subordinate the market to purposes that it is not geared to determine."
Journal ArticleDOI

Primary production required to sustain global fisheries

TL;DR: In this paper, the mean of reported annual world fisheries catches for 1988-1991 (94.3 million t) was split into 39 species groups, to which fractional trophic levels, ranging from 1.0 (edible algae) to 4.2 (tunas), were assigned, based on 48 published Trophic models, providing a global coverage of six major aquatic ecosystem types.
Journal ArticleDOI

Natural Capital and Sustainable Development

TL;DR: In this paper, a minimum necessary condition for sustainability is the maintenance of the total natural capital stock at or above the current level, to be relaxed only when solid evidence can be offered that it is safe to do so.
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