valuing ecosystem services: a biological perspective
DESCRIPTION
PowerPoint presentation for a guest lecture in ARE 4438, Valuing the Environment (University of Connecticut, 27 April 2009)TRANSCRIPT
Valuing ecosystem services: a biological perspective
Kent Holsinger
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
What values are threatened?
National Academy of Sciences, Report in Brief (2004)Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision Making
New York City watershed
Coastal wetlands/estuaries: fish production
Flood control services
Food production
Recreational fishing
What do these examples have in common?
Why worry about biodiversity?
We need it
We like it
We ought to
Does economics capture non-use values?
Substitutable?
Stable preference?
Does economics capture non-consumptive values?
No*
*But neither does ecology
AestheticsEthics
What kind of world do we want to live in?