Ecology -: The value of nature and the nature of value
Ecology -: The value of nature and the nature of value
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DOI：
10.1126/science.289.5478.395
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发表时间：
2000-07-21
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
Walker, B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Daily, GC;Söderqvist, T;Walker, B
世界生态系统是资本资产。如果管理得当，它们会产生一系列重要的服务，包括商品生产（如海产品和木材）、生命维持过程（如授粉和水净化）以及满足生活需要的条件（如美丽和宁静）。此外，生态系统在保护选项方面具有价值（例如遗传多样性供未来使用）。不幸的是，相对于其他形式的资本，人们对生态系统了解甚少，几乎没有监测，而且（在许多情况下）正在迅速退化和枯竭。生态系统服务的重要性往往只是在其丧失之后才得到广泛认识，这种情况正在开始改变，最明显的是在澳大利亚和哥斯达黎加。一家名为地球保护区有限公司的澳大利亚公司，今年5月，该公司在澳大利亚证券交易所上市，成为世界上第一家上市的环保公司。这家价值2500万美元的公司收购了土地（迄今已达9万公顷），恢复了当地植被和野生动物，并从旅游、咨询和野生动物销售中获得收入。该公司游说并赢得了会计法的修改，以便将其稀有的本土动物列为资产。与此同时，悉尼期货交易所正在将自己定位为生态系统服务交易的全球领导者，从碳封存（植物和土壤从大气中截留碳，温室气体成分）到“新环境产品”，如清洁水和生物多样性信用。新南威尔士州国家森林的首席执行官正在推动一个林业营销广泛的生态系统服务的愿景，木材作为“副产品”（3）。英联邦科学与工业研究组织和迈尔基金会刚刚启动了世界上最先进的生态系统资产评估（4）。
The world's ecosystems are capital assets. If properly managed, they yield a flow of vital services, including the production of goods (such as seafood and timber), life support processes (such as pollination and water purification), and life-fulfilling conditions (such as beauty and serenity). Moreover, ecosystems have value in terms of the conservation of options (such as genetic diversity for future use)(1). Unfortunately, relative to other forms of capital, ecosystems are poorly understood, scarcely monitored, and (in many cases) undergoing rapid degradation and depletion. Often the importance of ecosystem services is widely appreciated only upon their loss.This is beginning to change, most notably in Australia and Costa Rica. An Australian firm called Earth Sanctuaries, Ltd., was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in May, making it the world's first conservation company to go public. The US $25-million firm buys up land (90,000 ha so far) and restores native vegetation and wildlife, earning income from tourism, consulting, and wildlife sales (2). The firm lobbied for and won a change in accounting law so as to include its rare native animals as assets. Meanwhile, the Sydney Futures Exchange is positioning itself to be a global leader in the trading of ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration (the withholding of carbon, a greenhouse gas constituent, from the atmosphere by plants and soils) to “new environmental products,” such as credits for clean water and biodiversity. The CEO of State Forests of New South Wales is promoting a vision of foresters marketing a wide array of ecosystem services, with timber as a “by-product”(3). The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and The Myer Foundation have just launched the most advanced assessment of ecosystem assets in the world (4).