The value of biodiversity for our common future

What will the loss of biodiversity cause us to lose in the long run? How much investment should national economies now have to stop this trend? And what price will we have to pay if we don't act? These are the questions that the TEEB project - the Economic Project on Ecosystems and Biodiversity - seeks to answer.

(Photo: André Künzelmann / UF)

The experimental study led by Mr. Sukhdev, head of Deutsche Bank's Global Market Center (London), was requested by the German Federal Ministry of Environment BMU and the European Union. The BMU asked the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research UFZ to co-manage the scientific contributions to the study. Initial results will be presented at the 9th European Union Conference on Biodiversity (COP9) in Bonn, Germany on May 29.

'Biodiversity not only maintains the balance of the ecological system, it is also an endless source of potential new drugs. It helps maintain a healthy food chain and increases the quality of soil and water, 'said Professor Jürgen Mlynek, Helmholtz Association President. 'Its value goes far beyond anything we can describe using economic indicators, but the material benefits it brings to humanity are also great.'

5000 UN delegates from 190 countries will gather in Bonn from May 19 to May 30, 2008. During this conference, they will focus primarily on discussing potential methods to stop diversity reduction. continuous biology.

Pavan Sukhdev financial expert estimated that the 'value' of services in nature reserves in five continents of the world (excluding parks and marine conservation) amounted to about 5 billion dollars a year. But establishing a global value for biodiversity is not a major focus of research. As the case of global warming, it is the poor, especially the poor in developing economies, who suffer the most from the loss of so-called ecosystem services. Conservation of biodiversity is therefore necessary if we fight against global poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research is a coordinator of scientific contributions to this study. Researchers at UFZ are currently preparing to continue their cooperation on the report. Dr. Heidi Wittmer, a key researcher at UFZ, talks about her hope for the project:

'The Stern Review (Stern Review) changes the way we look at the economic consequences of climate change. We hope that the TEEB Report will also do the same for biodiversity. Obviously, preventing genocide is not only a romantic concept but is really extremely important to human survival. '