Journal ArticleDOI
The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital
Robert Costanza,Rudolf de Groot,Stephen Farberk,Monica Grasso,Bruce Hannon,Karin E. Limburg,Shahid Naeem,José M. Paruelo,Robert Raskin,Paul Suttonkk,Marjan van den Belt +10 more
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.read more
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Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife-- Threats to Biodiversity and Human Health
TL;DR: These phenomena have two major biological implications: many wildlife species are reservoirs of pathogens that threaten domestic animal and human health; second, wildlife EIDs pose a substantial threat to the conservation of global biodiversity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems
Michelle Waycott,Carlos M. Duarte,Tim J. B. Carruthers,Robert J. Orth,William C. Dennison,Suzanne V. Olyarnik,Ainsley Calladine,James W. Fourqurean,Kenneth L. Heck,A. Randall Hughes,Gary A. Kendrick,W. Judson Kenworthy,Frederick T. Short,Susan L. Williams +13 more
TL;DR: This comprehensive global assessment of 215 studies found that seagrasses have been disappearing at a rate of 110 km2 yr−1 since 1980 and that 29% of the known areal extent has disappeared since seagRass areas were initially recorded in 1879.
Book
Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology
TL;DR: In this paper, the Ecosystem Concept is used to describe the Earth's Climate System and Geology and Soils, and the ecosystem concept is used for managing and sustaining ecosystems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations
TL;DR: The concept of resilience—the capacity to buffer change, learn and develop—is used as a framework for understanding how to sustain and enhance adaptive capacity in a complex world of rapid transformations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Challenges in integrating the concept of ecosystem services and values in landscape planning, management and decision making
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide an overview of the challenges involved in applying ecosystem service assessment and valuation to environmental management and discuss some solutions to come to a comprehensive and practical framework.
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.
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
Daniel Pauly,Villy Christensen +1 more
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
Robert Costanza,Herman E. Daly +1 more
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.