Think Green Live Clean

Photo Credit: Victor Yeo

Have you ever thought about how much money you would be willing to pull from your wallet to preserve our earth’s forests? $50? $500? $5,000? If you find it extraordinarily difficult to put a monetary value on something so abstract, undefined, and unknown as a forest with all of its diversity and life support services then you are just like the rest of us.

In the past, the monetary value of a forest was based on the timber price that it could be sold for, but that equation leaves out some of the most important aspects of a forest…such as it’s diversity of plants and animals, the oxygen that it creates (which sustains human life), the carbon dioxide that it absorbs (and in doing so regulates our regional and global climate), the erosion and desertification that it prevents, and of course it’s magnificent beauty and recreational value. It is extremely important that all of these components are taken into full account immediately all over the world so that unsustainable deforestation ceases to exist.

Creating an equation that accounts for all of the services performed by forests may seem impossible, but a study headed by Deutsche Bank economist Pavan Sukhdev and funded by the European Commission seems to have done just that… and their results are staggering. The annual cost of forest loss to the global economy is between 2 to 5 trillion dollars, which is a figure that exceeds the cost of the current banking crisis, and forest loss is constant and continuous.

Many conservationists believe that this new forest valuing method will push policy makers to fund more forest preservation programs. Many countries, businesses, and organizations are already beginning to move more funds into forest conservation.  Additionally, there are signs of an emergent natural ecosystems trading program that would be very similar to the carbon trading program.  It’s about time nature is seen for what it is really worth and lets hope that all countries join in on this forest preservation effort.

To read more check out BBC News