Tag: Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

On ‘natural capital’ and ‘ecosystem services’ in the proposed Nature and Well-being Act (The Wildlife Trusts and RSPB)

This post responds to an invitation to add my views to a comments thread regarding the  'Green Paper' for A Nature and Well-being Act (hereafter 'Green Paper'), published in 2014 by the The Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB. The comments thread makes reference to work of mine by the anonymous 'todaysmysteryguest’, writing on Jan 8th … Continue reading On ‘natural capital’ and ‘ecosystem services’ in the proposed Nature and Well-being Act (The Wildlife Trusts and RSPB) →

‘Ecosystem services’
 and the role of the market:
 a concerned view

Notes from an invited talk given as part of a Public Dialogue on the UK's National Ecosystem Assessment, held at the Royal Society London in 2014.   There are a range of different ways of representing the relatively new term and concept of ‘ecosystem services’. Here's one: As you can see, in this image ‘cultural … Continue reading ‘Ecosystem services’
 and the role of the market:
 a concerned view →

The natural capital myth

The Making of ‘Natural Capital’ Increasingly, it seems, nature is actually money. The contemporary moment of global crisis in both ecological and economic spheres is also the moment wherein ‘Nature’ is being refashioned as ‘Natural Capital’. Key interlocking elements thus are joining the previously rather separate domains of economics, business and finance, with ecology, environmentalism and conservation. … Continue reading The natural capital myth →

Biodiversity conservation, financialisation and equity: some currents and concerns

 1. On elephants and economics In 1993, Australian ecologist Graeme Caughley published a paper on elephant conservation and market reasoning in Conservation Biology. Responding to proposals that clear ownership designations and the ability to sell harvested ivory on a free market would incentivise the conservation of African elephants, he showed that this approach might … Continue reading Biodiversity conservation, financialisation and equity: some currents and concerns →

The environmentality of ‘Earth Incorporated’

In the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, the villainous business tycoon Domenic Greene, makes a moving (and familiar) speech to potential company sponsors at a spectacularly glamorous, environmental fund-raising gala in Bolivia. He states: We are in a spiral of environmental decline. Since 1945 17% of the planet's vegetated surface has been irreversibly degraded. … Continue reading The environmentality of ‘Earth Incorporated’ →

Green capitalism, and the cultural poverty of constructing nature as service provider

“People differ not only in their culture but also in their nature, or rather, in the way they construct relations between humans and non-humans.” Loss We hear a lot these days about loss. In April 2009, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that banks, insurance instruments and pension funds have ‘lost’ some US $4.1 trillion … Continue reading Green capitalism, and the cultural poverty of constructing nature as service provider →

For the G20 Alternative Summit, London 2009

Notes on the poverty of constructing nature as service-provider Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. (UN Declaration of Human Rights, article 19) This post consists of … Continue reading For the G20 Alternative Summit, London 2009 →