237 



Much recent work has been done on the economic value, in and of 

 itself, of biological diversity. One of the best nontechnical 

 summaries appears in Conserving the World's Biological Diversity 

 (McNeely, J. A., et. al., Copublished by International Union for 

 Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, World Resources 

 Institute, et. al., Washington, DC (1990)), at pages 27, 33-34): 



"Economists have devised a variety of methods for assigning values 

 to natural biological resources (citations omitted). This 

 multiplicity of approaches is to be expected, because the 

 benefits derived from a biological resource may be measured for 

 one purpose by methods that may not be appropriate for other 

 objectives, and the ways to measure one resource may not be the 

 same for others. The value of a forest in terms of logs, for 

 example, would be measured in quite a different way from the 

 value of the forest for recreation or for watershed protection. 



Three main approaches have been used for determining the value of 

 biological resources: 



— assessing the value of nature's products — such as firewood, 

 fodder, and game meat — that are consumed directly, without 

 passing through a market ("consumptive use value"); 



— assessing the value of products that are commercially 

 harvested, such as game meat sold in a market, timber, fish, 

 ivory, and medicinal plants ("productive use value"); 



— assessing indirect values of ecosystem functions, such as 

 watershed protection, photosynthesis, regulation of climate, 

 and production of soil ("non-consumptive use value"), along 

 with the intangible values of keeping options open for the 

 future and simply knowing that certain species exist ("option 

 value" and "existence value," respectively). 



Assessing benefits and costs of protecting biological resources 

 provides a basis for determining the total value of any 

 protected area or other system of biological resources. Since 

 the value of conserving biological resources can be 

 considerable, conservation should be seen as a form of economic 

 development." (pg. 27, extensive citations omitted) 



In particular, the authors of that study emphasize that preserving 

 genetic diversity provides future economic options : 



"The future is uncertain, and extinction is forever. [Researchers] 

 suggest that society "should prepare for unpredictable events, 

 both biological and socio-economic. The best preparation in the 

 context of wildlife use is to have a safety net of diversity — 

 maintaining as many gene pools as possible, particularly within 



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