How to value and account for ecosystems

How should we value ecosystems’ natural services like pollination or clean water? The risk is that, without efforts to measure and value these services, the default value can be ‘zero’.

Healthy ecosystems allow for human life to exist and thrive. The healthier our supporting ecosystems, the more reliable the flow of benefits they will provide.
This video introduces the key debates on valuing ecosystem services and about how natural capital accounting might be used to lead to better, more balanced global and local decisions. Natural capital, which incorporates natural resources and ecosystem assets, is instrumental in sustaining economic activity, particularly in regions reliant on sectors that use mostly natural resources.

The EU strives to promote environmentally responsible business practices. Natural capital accounting has the potential to provide a concrete basis for business performance reporting by explicitly mapping out impacts and/or dependencies on natural resources and placing monetary value on them.

For more information, read the In-Depth Reports from Science for Environment Policy - Taking stock: progress in natural capital accounting: europa.eu/!JV94Ux
Ecosystem services and biodiversity: europa.eu/!kt73TK

0:00 Ecosystem services
0:32 Value of nature
1:21 Other valuing methods
3:34 Beyond monetary value