| Loss of Biodiversity to Cost Billions | 19 June 08 |
 Environment ministers of G8 countries and newly industrializing countries have endorsed a German lead study about the economic significance of global loss of biological diversity. Lead author Mr. Pavan Sukhdev of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), an interim report, identifies how human well-being is utterly dependent on "ecosystem services" from forests, rivers and marine environments. The report says the world has lost 40 percent of its forests in 300 years, half its wetlands in just 50 years, and will loose 60 percent of coral reefs by 2030. "We are consuming the world's biodiverse ecosystem at an unsustainable rate and this is starting to have serious socio-economic impacts", say the authors. "There are no economies without environments but there are environments without economies." The second phase of the study headed by Germany's Ministry for the Environment and the European Commission, will provide a toolkit and valuation model for policy makers. View May 2008 Europa Interim report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (PDF) View May 29, 2008 IDW press release Visit European Commission - Nature & Biodiversity website View March 2008 International Workshop Proceedings, Economics of Global Loss of Biological Diversity View May 30, 2008 The Guardian article Sources: European Union, IDW, Ecologic, The Guardian |
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