Valuation of biodiversity

The programme for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) focused on questions of how to conceptualise and implement a global Green Economy. The choice of this topic is evidence of changing economic paradigms in environmental and development policy in both international and German policy processes. An important factor in this is the valuation of biodiversity, which involves not only the protection but also an economic appropriation of nature. Related concepts such as payment for ecosystem services and natural capital provide a way to calculate the monetary value of natural resources. However, such approaches also have negative impacts on other crucial elements of the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems.

This problem is what the present project takes up. By discussing the political and social discourses of the valuation of biodiversity, this research paper contributes to the assessment of the relevance of economic evaluation systems in the context of Rio+20 and beyond. The objective was the analysis of the positions, explanations, arguments and justifications made by key stakeholders on economic evaluation systems. As a conclusion, the study provided on how Germany can position itself in respect to the valuation of biodiversity.