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Article: Natural services open for business.(ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES MARKETS: Progress)
- Article from:
- Ecos
- Article date:
- October 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 CSIRO Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Nature's good works, the 'ecosystem services' on which all life on Earth depends--and which actually underpin our entire economy--have long been taken for granted. In modern society we've tended to undervalue such integral environmental provisions as clean water, liveable climates, carbon sequestration, pollination of crops, soil conservation and the general maintenance of biodiversity. (1)
But now a worldwide push has commenced to turn this around by actually establishing particular markets for the functions that ecosystems provide. With trading already having begun in some services, it appears that these markets won't be too different from those we already have ...