Economists agree that natural ecosystems store large quantities of wealth, but the challenge of measuring that wealth has prevented it from being included in typical accounting systems.
A new Yale-led study tackles this challenge by recognizing the value of “natural capital” assets — such as groundwater or fish species — and connecting them with holistic ecosystem management to calculate asset values for the interacting parts of an ecosystem.
Using as a case study the Baltic Sea fishery ecosystem, the researchers project that the use of a holistic management scheme, which tracks multiple connected species, will increase the stored wealth of the entire system over five decades. Management of a single species stock, meanwhile, will generally produce declining wealth.
http://environment.yale.edu/news/article/natural-capital-holistic-management-makes-ecosystems-healthier-people-wealthier/
