TOKYO: The World Bank has launched a global partnership aimed at helping countries include the costs of destroying nature into their national accounts, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday.
The bank‘s president Robert Zoellick, said environmental destruction happened partly because governments do not account for the value of nature.
The partnership was launched at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Nagoya , Japan.
”We know that human well-being depends on ecosystems and biodiversity,” said Zoellick.
”We also know they‘re degrading at an alarming rate.
”One of the causes is our failure to properly value ecosystems and all they do for us _ and the solution therefore lies in taking full account of our ecosystem services when countries make policies.”
Norway’s Environment Minister, Erik Solheim said re-valuing nature in this way would force business practices to change.
”We need to move from a situation where the benefits of ecosystem services are privatised whereas the coasts are socialised.”
”The full costs of negative impacts on ecosystems must be covered by those who receive a benefit from destroying it.”
The new project aims to pick up conclusions of a recent UN-backed project on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, and help governments turn them into policy.
Teeb‘s headline conclusion was that degradation of the natural world is costing the global economy $2-5trn (£1.3-3.2bn) per year.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010291232839
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