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What's Nature Worth? Study Helps Put a Price On Groundwater and Other Natural Capital

Accepted submission by Phoenix666 at 2016-02-09 15:27:09
Techonomics

Most people understand that investing in the future is important, and that goes for conserving nature and natural resources, too. But in the case of investing in such "natural" assets as groundwater, forests, and fish populations, it can be challenging to measure the return on that investment.

A Yale-led research team has adapted traditional asset valuation approaches to measure the value of such natural capital assets [sciencedaily.com], linking economic measurements of ecosystem services with models of natural dynamics and human behavior.

This innovation will enable policymakers to better evaluate conservation and natural resource management programs, make apples-to-apples comparisons between investing in conversation of natural capital and other investments, and provides a component critical to measuring sustainability.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors demonstrate how to price natural capital using the example of the Kansas High Plains' groundwater aquifer -- a critical natural resource that supports the region's agriculture-based economy.

Another method might be to compel politicians and the ultra-wealthy to live in Love Canal [wikipedia.org] for 6 months and then ask them how much they'd pay to get out.


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