The World Bank announced a new partnership which will provide assistance to developing countries to integrate economic benefits that ecosystems provide to national accounting systems.
The alarming loss of biological diversity around the world can be partly attributed to the lack of proper value being placed on ecosystems and the services they provide, President of World Bank Group Robert B Zoellick said in a release to ANTARA Thursday.
Zoellick who addressed the Convention of Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, pointed out the new partnership could provide “miss information” about the natural wealth of a country to give a direction to leaders in decision making.
The natural wealth of a country was supposed to serve as capital assets for every nation viewed and combined with financial capital, manufactured capital, and human capital, he said.
According to him, national savings should reflect storage of vital carbon from woods and protection of coastal regions, especially coral reefs and mangrove forests.
The World Bank is planning to assist the integration of the value of ecosystems into the bookkeeping system of a country and then scale up the work of countries around the world.
According to the World Bank, the changing wealth of nations, the economic value of agricultural, forestry, mineral, and energy sectors all around the world reached more than 44 trillion US dollars, including 29 trillion US dollars coming from developing countries.
However, what was mentioned earlier was only a commercial value. In fact, more values had been laid on the eco-services provided by the forests such as hydrological circulation, fertile soil, and pollination.
Logging would also cast negative consequences for the economic sector, such as decreasing agricultural productivity, hydroelectric energy, and water quality, the institution said.
Global Partnership for Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services Valuation and Wealth Accounting were built on the United Nations Environment Program, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).
TEEB concluded that the invisibility of many of nature`s services to the economy results in widespread neglect of natural capital, leading to decisions that degrade ecosystem services and biodiversity.
The World Bank claimed the new Partnership could take TEEB’s work to the next level, developing the systems needed to bring the value of natural capital to the highest level of a country’s economic decision-making.
