Capturing Carbon Tips Cost-Benefit Balance in Favor of Conservation

Conservation often seems to boil down to preserving the environment versus economic opportunity. If a given patch of land is saved, then a farmer will go hungry. If a marine reserve is created, then fisherfolk will lose their jobs. But two new studies demonstrate that intact ecosystems offer a variety of economic benefits, and preserving the environment may do more economic good than bad.

Robin Naidoo and Taylor Ricketts of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) performed a classic cost-benefit analysis of the Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve in eastern Paraguay, part of the disappearing Atlantic woods of South America. In the past 30 years this protected region has lost 34 percent of its tree cover to agriculture and cattle ranching as well as timber harvesting. The researchers rated the economic benefits derived from five ecosystem services: sustainable bush meat hunting; timber harvest; bioprospecting for pharmaceuticals; carbon storage; and so-called existence value, or the intrinsic value of nature as a source of wonder and inspiration, the researchers write in the paper presenting their finding published yesterday in PLoS Biology. As for costs, the researchers calculated this as the agricultural value the land would have provided if deforested.