By Savanna Henderson, Humanitas Global
When attempting to compromise between global priorities like slowing the loss of nature and biodiversity and addressing challenges like fostering the development of human populations while reducing poverty and malnourishment, the strategy of using pro-poor conservation can be alluring. Often, methods of addressing these issues and priorities are based upon a commodification of nature that will contribute to providing valued environmental and socioeconomic benefits to all parties involved (including the global community). While putting a dollar figure on nature would seem to support an increased valuing of and conservation of the natural world, it can present complications that actually serve to work against the protection of the environment.
An example of one of those complications lies with ecotourism. Ecotourism is a form of tourism channeled specifically towards natural environments with an emphasis on environmental sustainability -- often supporting conservation efforts and local economic and human development. The Tanzanian government created Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in 1998 for conservation purposes. Included in the creation of the WMAs was a legal mechanism that allowed rural communities and private land holders to manage wildlife on the WMAs for their own economic benefit. Wildlife tourism became a source of revenue --which supported conservation of the animals and their habitats -- within the WMAs that endorsed wildlife as a cash asset. In an attempt to increase the revenue derived from ecotourism within the WMAs, some participating communities began developing additional and more elaborate tourism camps with one even discussing construction of an airport to support more tourism. While the local’s interests and intentions started with conservation, development actions like these reflect a quantifiable and detrimental shift away from conservation and towards capital accumulation.
However, not all ecotourism is detrimental to conservation. There are examples of ecotourism benefiting both the local people and the environment. The difficulty lies in maintaining the balance between authentic conservation and income opportunities that support human development. Idealy, the value of nature would be derived from nature itself, with all its variety and provisions, rather than from specific aspects of it which are easily monetizable in the short term.
Recently, a paper (summarized here) was published exhibiting a newly developed formula for computing the price of nature or, natural capital. The beauty of this formula is that it will allow for policymakers to compare the value of natural capital against the value of traditional forms of capital and therefore make more supportive policies for nature. It has long been a struggle to compare the value of nature, which include ecosystem services provided such as pollination, water filtration or carbon sequestration, because it varies widely across the globe and can be utilized in different ways that impact its value. For instance, soil provides a variety of ecosystem services that extend beyond the simple production of food. Soil acts as a storehouse for carbon, provides flood control, and helps in recycling both water and waste. Putting a price on just a single service doesn't adequately represent the capital soil embodies. By acknowledging that soil, perhaps the most easily ignored aspect of the natural world, is valuable natural capital, more sustainable use policies can be put in place.
Ultimately, this formula is part of a holistic framework that will allow for policy makers to make the most sustainable decisions about conservation. While sustainability is well understood and defined, it becomes difficult to pinpoint when it interacts with interrelated disciplines. It becomes nearly impossible then, to measure sustainability when there isn’t a universal commonality to use for appraisal. Tools such as the formula mentioned above show extreme potential for actually measuring sustainability through commodifying nature and therefore, have the potential to lead to improved environmental conservation and hopefully to improvements in human development.
