David Suzuki

October 5, 2005

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Banking on our natural
capital

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Anyone who regularly reads science journals knows there's
no shortage of research about how human activities are
affecting our ecosystems. But translating that research into
action to conserve those systems is another matter.

Sometimes it seems there are dire predictions about the
future of the planet's ecosystems coming out almost every day.
Then the headlines fade (if there even were headlines) and so
does the sense of urgency. As a recent editorial in the
journal Nature points out, "In too many cases, however, that
leaves scientists positioned only to track the loss of these
systems. So far, researchers have been less effective at
achieving the level of impact on policy decisions needed to
implement actual conservation measures."

Standard appeals for conservation - such as the need to
conserve species for future generation, protect especially
charismatic species, or protect the aesthetic beauty of
certain areas - arguably aren't doing very well. By most
measurements, society is failing to conserve the diversity of
life on Earth, as well as the natural systems that provide
many important services to humanity - things like helping
stabilize the climate, clean our air and water, and keep our
soils fertile.

If standard appeals aren't working, how do we best appeal
to policy makers to make the changes necessary to achieve
sustainability? Well, one way that is receiving increasing
support is to stress the economic value of ecosystems. That
may seem crass to some. After all, how can you put a dollar
value on some services that are irreplaceable? How can you put
a price tag the planet's ecosystems that support us when it's
the only planet we have?

Those are valid questions, but if policy-makers only
understand dollars and cents, and natural services are valued
at zero, then they'll continually be overused and damaged by
those who make the economic decisions. Natural services are
economically valuable, and when we reduce their capacity to
function, we lose out - both in terms of dollars and quality
of life. Research shows, for example, that the terrible loss
of life and property resulting from the tsunami last year
could have been lessened if mangrove forests along the Sri
Lankan coast had been protected.

In Canada too, we rarely put a value on nature or the
services it provides. Smog costs in Ontario alone are at least
$1 billion every year in health care expenses and lost
workdays - and that number is increasing. These are actual
hard costs to society. Yet we don't internalize the costs to
polluters. Instead, we let polluters off without paying the
bill and society as a whole has to pick up the tab.

Some even suggest that taxes on gasoline should be reduced,
further removing responsibility from the most polluting
industries and individuals. This makes no sense from an
environmental or an economic perspective. As the respected
magazine The Economist points out, "Petrol taxes are there to
capture and charge motorists and others for the externalities
they create, such as pollution and congestion.... To cut fuel
taxes when oil prices rise is bad economics as well as bad
politics."

Take the Nature Challenge and learn
more at

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

Once you factor in external costs to society of degrading
natural systems, it's often a better economic investment to
protect some ecosystems, rather than exploit them in an
intensive industrial fashion. For example, Canada's huge
boreal forest that stretches across the North is one of the
world's most important carbon sinks. It's incredibly valuable
in helping to reduce global warming. If we attach a dollar
value to this service we can see why it makes sense to protect
large areas of this forest from industrial development and
logging.

Trying to conserve little bits of land here or there and
trying to protect the variety of life on earth
species-by-species just isn't working. The recent United
Nations-sponsored Millennium Ecosystem Assessment told us that
60 per cent of the planet's ecosystem services are currently
being degraded by human activities. Focusing on the economic
value of these services may well be the only hope we have of
protecting them.

Banking
on our natural capital
Anyone who regularly reads
science journals knows there's no shortage of research about
how human activities are affecting our ecosystems. But
translating that research into action to conserve those
systems is another matter. Full
Column

Columnist DAVID
SUZUKI

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