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Announcements
The desire to mitigate pressure on ecosystems has led to the development of ecosystem valuation – but is it effective?
Valuation demonstrates how ecosystems contribute to human well-being, but has arguably also encouraged the creation of environmentally-based commodities and tradable financial assets, a process that has been called the “financialization of nature”.
The authors argue that the abstractions needed to make financial assets usable makes them unsuitable for that purpose. They identify some partial exceptions, including tradable permits to place non-specific pressure on ecosystems and socially responsible investment (SRI). However, those exceptions hold only under highly restrictive circumstances.
They further acknowledge that valuation can demonstrate the importance of ecosystems in contexts where monetary values carry substantial weight, but the streams of value are diffuse and in nearly all cases cannot be appropriated. Moreover, appropriation creates an incentive to maximize income-generating services over broader ecosystem function.
Journal article / This paper calculates the degree to which the output of some raw materials sectors — such as mining and forestry — cascades through the economy.
Other publication / This paper highlights how the classical development theory concept of "forward linkages" can identify key sectors of the economy.
Journal article / This paper shows how a simplified cross-impact balance can replace a full multi-scale balance when a stable set of global scenarios is adopted at large scale.
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