Awareness is growing – in communities, in governments and in the private sector – of the many valuable benefits ecosystems provide to people and to our economy. Yet this awareness is not growing quickly enough to stem current rates of ecosystem degradation and loss, says Lauretta Burke, Senior Associate, Food, Forest and Water Program at the World Resources Institute in this blog. She says decision-makers all-too-often treat ecosystem services as a free benefit.
 

The monetary value of the world’s oceans has been estimated at US$24 trillion, and the annual “goods and services” they provide, such as food, are valued at $2.5 trillion, according to a new report by WWF.

Along China’s southern coast you can find a city with tropical beaches and a thriving tourist economy. It’s called Sanya, and it, like many other places in China, has seen rapid economic development over the last 15 years. What is different about Sanya is that local leaders decided that as the city embarks on its growth plan, it’s also critically important to keep an accounting of the amount of natural resources and associated ecosystem services being lost, or gained, along the way.

California cannot solve its water crisis without pricing the stuff properly and dealing with those who consume the most. For years, it was the only state in the West that did not manage how much groundwater landowners could extract from their private wells. Last year, finally, the governor signed a bill to regulate groundwater extraction.