School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511, USA.
EcoHealth Alliance, 460 W 34th Floor 17, New York City, New York, 10001, USA.
Ecol Appl. 2020 Sep;30(6):e02132. doi: 10.1002/eap.2132. Epub 2020 May 21.
Some species are valued for their direct usefulness to society, through immediate financial returns from market activities such as harvesting or ecotourism. But many are valued for their passive usefulness, i.e., their mere existence contributes to supporting, regulating or cultural environmental services that support human well-being. Hence, there is inherent social value to conserving such species as natural assets. However, such species are seldom priced as natural assets, and thus not accounted for in sustainability wealth measures because deriving non-market prices is challenging. We overcome this limitation by presenting a new approach for natural asset pricing of species with passive value that can be incorporated into national sustainability wealth accounting. We explicitly consider the relationship between prevailing institutions, species interactions, and ecosystem dynamics. Our approach is illustrated with the case of threatened woodland caribou in the Alberta Oil Sands. We show that conservation can be considered an investment while destructive activities can lead to a loss or conservation debt; and forgoing destructive activities can be considered a capital gain, increasing future wealth. Our approach reveals that caribou conservation in Alberta is leading to a conservation debt on the order of CA$800 million.
有些物种因其直接的社会用途而受到重视，通过市场活动（如收获或生态旅游）直接获得经济回报。但许多物种因其被动的用途而受到重视，即它们的存在本身有助于支持、调节或文化环境服务，从而支持人类福祉。因此，保护这些物种作为自然资产具有内在的社会价值。然而，由于很难确定非市场价格，这些物种很少被定价为自然资产，因此也不会被纳入可持续性财富衡量标准中。我们通过提出一种新的方法来解决这个问题，这种方法可以对具有被动价值的物种进行自然资产定价，并将其纳入国家可持续性财富核算中。我们明确考虑了现行制度、物种相互作用和生态系统动态之间的关系。我们的方法通过阿尔伯塔油砂中受威胁的林地驯鹿案例进行了说明。我们表明，保护可以被视为一种投资，而破坏性活动则会导致损失或保护债务；放弃破坏性活动可以被视为资本收益，增加未来的财富。我们的方法表明，阿尔伯塔省的驯鹿保护正在导致约 8 亿加元的保护债务。
