Ecological and Economic Foundation
The TEEB study is underpinned by state-of-the-art science and economics. The goal is to provide the conceptual foundation to link economics and ecology and to posit a paradigm of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services. This aspect of the study tackles the challenges of valuing ecosystem services, as well as issues related to economic discounting. It aims to quantify the costs of inaction and examine the macroeconomic dimension of ecosystem services loss. This information will focus on improving our understanding of the economic costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. This survey is the most comprehensive overview of existing thinking in this area to date, and the process is bringing scientists and economists together to provide the analysis and tools required in order for us to be able to create a robust methodological framework enabling the decision-makers at different levels to do economic analysis of ecosystem services and biodiversity.
To contact the Ecological and Economic Foundation co-ordinator, please e-mail Pushpam Kumar, at the University of Liverpool, or teeb [at] ufz.de.
We are adding chapters of the Ecological and Economic Foundation report to this section of the TEEB website. To read them please download them here:
- Chapter Overview
- Chapter 1: Integrating the ecological and economic dimensions in biodiversity and ecosystem service valuation
Appendix: How the TEEB framework can be applied - The Amazon Case
- Chapter 2: Biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services
- Chapter 3: Measuring biophysical quantities and the use of indicators
- Chapter 4: Socio-cultural context of ecosystem and biodiversity valuation
- Chapter 5: The economics of valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity (Annex A) (Annex B)
- Chapter 6: Discounting, ethics and options for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem integrity
Comments are welcome on the chapters and should be made by email.
Authors, for access to the TEEB workspace on the CIRCA website, click here.