If a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it, did the tree really fall?
You’ve likely heard this well-pondered riddle already so how about this one:
If an entire forest is cleared to build a new highway, but no one knows the existing value of the forest to local communities, does losing the forest really cost local communities anything?
While the concept of “natural capital” is widely recognized, capturing its value can be challenging. How do you compare the loss of the forest and its myriad, though perhaps undocumented, benefits against the cold hard calculations of the economic returns from a new highway? One answer is through ecosystem service valuation, or ESV for short.
“Decisions over the extent to which new protected areas should be established, if at all, often involve an economic analysis of “opportunity costs,” which are simply the economic value of uses forgone—i.e. without protection, can the land be used productively for agriculture, urban expansion, minerals, or energy? Ecosystem service valuation asks the reverse—i.e.
