Adding up money hidden in ecosystem
Study tallies economics of natural resources
In many people’s minds, protecting ecology and boosting the economy are at odds. But a relatively new school of economic thinking helps put a price on “natural capital” in a manner designed to help planners evaluate natural resources in a holistic and very practical sense.
“This is not simply dealing with the ecological in the abstract,” says former Toronto mayor David Crombie. “The core understanding is that economy, ecology and community are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they are mutually interdependent. So it’s fundamental to people that they have an economy that they can participate in and one that they can get enough wealth out of so that they can raise their families.”
A report released by the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation late last year entitled “Ontario’s Good Fortune: Appreciating the Greenbelt’s Natural Capital” employed the National Ecosystem Services Classification methodology to identify ecosystem services “accounts” that directly benefit citizens.
For example, such activities and benefits as hunting and bird watching, flood protection, water filtration by wetlands and carbon storage resulting in clean air to breathe — all have a very real economic benefit to those living in proximity to the Greenbelt.
The report was prepared by Green Analytics, an Ontario accounting firm with the catchy and very forward-thinking tag line “people, planet, profit.”
The value of recreational activities in the Greenbelt is calculated at $2.1 billion a year. Flood protection of private property is valued at $224 million per year, with our natural environment providing $52 million per year of value in carbon sequestration.
“There’s a terrific economy in agriculture,” Crombie says. “Sprawl is no longer a winning proposition, if it ever was. It’s not helpful to the building of community unless you like hour and a half commutes. The idea of having complete communities where people can live, work and play is more helpful. It’s a better way of dealing with it.”
The goal of valuing natural capital is to provide guidance for land-use planning that takes into account a wider set of benefits and consequences for developmental policies, including quality of life, economic growth and the preservation and enhancement of natural resources.