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25 years of valuing ecosystems in decision-making

The economic value that the world’s ecosystems provide was first estimated in 1997, eliciting a wide range of reactions. How have such valuations advanced since then, and what are today’s frontiers in using these values for decision-making?
  1. Gretchen C. Daily

    1. Gretchen C. Daily is at the Natural Capital Project in the Department of Biology, Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, Stanford Center for China’s Economy and Institutions, and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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  2. Mary Ruckelshaus

    1. Mary Ruckelshaus is at the Natural Capital Project in the Department of Biology, Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, Stanford Center for China’s Economy and Institutions, and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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A quarter of a century ago, Costanza et al.1 put forward an estimate for the economic value of global ecosystem services — the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. The authors valued these at US$33 trillion per year. Objections to the exercise were raised on many grounds, from those involving technical matters to ethical concerns about pricing nature. And its utility was questioned, drawing comments2 such as, “there is little that can usefully be done with a serious underestimate of infinity.” Yet Costanza and colleagues’ bigger aim went far beyond merely producing a number. They wanted to reframe the way people think about nature, especially in the context of economic decision-making. As they stated in the paper, “We must begin to give the natural capital stock that produces these services adequate weight in the decision-making process, otherwise ... human welfare may drastically suffer.”

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Nature 606, 465-466 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01480-x

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 30 August 2023: This article incorrectly stated the year that the United Nations approved the System of Environmental–Economic Accounting framework for global deployment. It was approved in 2021, not 2012. The article has been updated to reflect this.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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