Equity and Cost-Effectiveness in Valuation and Action Planning to Preserve Biodiversity

Economic research and frameworks, comprehensively synthesized in “The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review” (Dasgupta 2021), can do much to help stem global biodiversity loss. However, ingrained features of economics as a discipline often produce explanations and solutions for environmental problems that advantage wealthy and powerful entities in our global society rather than those who are poor or otherwise marginalized. This paper highlights two dimensions of economic research related to biodiversity where disciplinary bias can lead to ineffective and inequitable work: biodiversity valuation, and targeting causes of biodiversity loss to be changed. First, it shows how valuation approaches can best be used to inform actions that capture both use and non-use values and include the perspectives and needs of people who are typically marginalized in governance processes. Second, it discusses how global action to preserve biodiversity will be cost-ineffective and inequitable unless we take at least some steps to identify and correct actions taken by wealthy countries and large-scale producers that contribute much to the biodiversity crisis, rather than focusing policy primarily on the behavior of low-income individuals and households.