PowerPoint presentation for a guest lecture in ARE 4438, Valuing the Environment (University of Connecticut, 27 April 2009)

1. Valuing ecosystem services: a
biological perspective
Kent Holsinger
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

2. What values are
threatened?

3. National Academy of Sciences, Report in Brief (2004)
Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision Making

4. New York City watershed
Coastal wetlands/estuaries:
fish production
Flood control services
Food production
Recreational fishing

5. What do these
examples have in
common?

8. Why worry about
biodiversity?

9. We need it
We like it
We ought to

10. Does economics
capture non-use
values?

11. Substitutable?

12. Stable preference?

13. Does economics
capture non-
consumptive values?
No*
*But neither does ecology

14. Aesthetics
Ethics
What kind of world do
we want to live in?