Valuing biodiversity: reality or mirage?
The objective of this paper was to consider the social value of biological diversity and explore if this value could be expressed in terms of a unidimensional metric in money. Economics distinguishes between use-values and non-use-values, which are critically evaluated for valuing biodiversity. It is shown that these utility-based valuations have severe limitations as they treat species in isolation from their ecological contexts. In contrast, ecosystem ecology regards ecosystems as an integrated non-linear and nonconvex system in which ecosystem functions can be understood as a four-component cycle; exploitation, accumulation of biomass, creative destruction and renewal. Within such a cycle, ecosystems can be seen to have two properties: stability and resilience. A good proxy for resilience is the probability of extinction of species, and social value of biodiversity can be expressed as a partial ordering with this probability as an index. This approach is consistent with decision theory, of which social choice is an important component, pioneered by Arrow.
Dore
Mohammed H I
MH
Department of Economics, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada. dore@adam.econ.brocku.ca
Webb
David
D
D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics*; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004467:Economics; D017753:Ecosystem; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D006801:Humans; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012945:Social Values