Economic valuation of ecosystem services

摘要: On an ever more crowded planet, the challenges of maintaining healthy ecosystems seem ever more complex. More and more natural ecosystems have been dramatically altered by the activities of humans through their development, manufacturing, and consumption activities. While there is cause for concern about the declining health of ecosystems, there is also an emerging recognition that natural ecosystems make significant contributions to economic and human well-being (Heal, 2000). Or, in a term increasingly used by economists as well as environmental scientists, nature provides important “ecosystem services.”