Abstract
While much time and effort is spent attempting to quantify environmental services for inclusion in the economic system, no one seems to ask how nature might value us. An ecological accounting process is devised to accommodate ecosystem flows, allowing for the computation of ecological prices, and leading to the calculation of net ecosystem output and the efficiency of its production. The process is somewhat similar to economic accounting, but allows us to consider the ecosystem as open, conforming to thermodynamic laws. Examples, such as intervention to reduce soil erosion, illustrate how humans might be appreciated by the ecosystem. In some instances, the net output might be higher with some human presence than with no human presence.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 265-279 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Ecological Economics |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1998 |
Keywords
- Ecological accounting
- Ecosystem
- Environmental services
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Environmental Science
- Economics and Econometrics