Put a value on nature! (Pavan Sukhdev)

Pavan Sukhdev / TED talk / July 2011

Pavan Sukhdev blog April 2014, Huffington Post: Valuing Natural Capital: What Next and Why?

Pavan Sukhdev is one of the key thinkers behind the idea of recognising the economic value of nature’s services. In this TED talk he says it is urgent to make nature economically visible because otherwise it will just continue to be valued at zero and degraded.

Several examples are used to back up this argument. It is estimated pollination by bees is worth around US$190 billion but Sukddev asks, “when did a bee actually give you an invoice?”

He believes recognising natural capital is the way to correct the current development model that destroys what is our most important asset: ecological infrastructure.

Read a summary of the landmark The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) synthesis report

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This summary was prepared by Why Green Economy?. The views expressed have been paraphrased. See the original source for more information.