Book Description

Why shouldn't people who deplete our natural assets have to pay, and those who protect them reap profits? Conservation-minded entrepreneurs and others around the world are beginning to ask just that question, as the increasing scarcity of natural resources becomes a tangible threat to our own lives and our hopes for our children. The New Economy of Nature brings together Gretchen Daily, one of the world's leading ecologists, with Katherine Ellison, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, to offer an engaging and informative look at a new "new economy" -- a system recognizing the economic value of natural systems and the potential profits in protecting them.

Through engaging stories from around the world, the authors introduce readers to a diverse group of people who are pioneering new approaches to conservation. We meet Adam Davis, an American business executive who dreams of establishing a market for buying and selling "ecosystem service units;" John Wamsley, a former math professor in Australia who has found a way to play the stock market and protect native species at the same time; and Dan Janzen, a biologist working in Costa Rica who devised a controversial plan to sell a conservation area's natural waste-disposal services to a local orange juice producer. Readers also visit the Catskill Mountains, where the City of New York purchased undeveloped land instead of building an expensive new water treatment facility; and King County, Washington, where county executive Ron Sims has dedicated himself to finding ways of "making the market move" to protect the county's remaining open space.

Daily and Ellison describe the dynamic interplay of science, economics, business, and politics that is involved in establishing these new approaches and examine what will be needed to create successful models and lasting institutions for conservation. The New Economy of Nature presents a fundamentally new way of thinking about the environment and about the economy, and with its fascinating portraits of charismatic pioneers, it is as entertaining as it is informative.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Environmentalists are often stereotyped as unrealistic idealists who make impossible demands on society, especially when financial issues are involved. But there is a group of environmentalists at the forefront of an innovative approach that uses capitalism as a tool for conservation. This "new economy of nature" integrates the ecosystem services -- carbon storage, water purification, genetic diversity, and many others that have been considered "free" -- into the world of business.

When the quality of New York City's water supply was threatened some years back, two choices presented themselves: building an expensive new water treatment plant or protecting the watershed. Cost analysis actually showed watershed protection to be the more financially attractive alternative. In this case the city compensated the communities of upstate New York for taking the necessary measures, such as building new storm sewers, that would allow the watershed to continue providing healthful drinking water for downstate city dwellers.

Other entrepreneurs want to go straight to the heart of the beast by selling carbon credits on the stock market. Although the success of this particular venture depends on governmental legislation to guarantee the value of the credits, carbon credits would give a real-time dollar value to living forests -- which store carbon in their trunks -- to counter their value as timber. Companies that burn carbon would buy credits as an offset to governmental caps. One danger would be the growing of monoculture tree farms as carbon sinks. To offset this, biodiversity credits are being developed alongside the carbon credits to give additional value to native habitat.

The authors, a scientist and a journalist, bring a sense of realistic optimism to these early efforts. Despite some setbacks, the new economy of nature holds a promise for the future -- one where all the intangible reasons for saving nature blend with the tangible -- so that nature will not have to rely on charity. (Laura Wood)

Laura Wood is the Barnes & Noble.com Science & Nature editor.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Earth's ecosystems -- forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and the like -- are among humanity's most precious assets, offering such vital services as climate stabilization and water purification. So why are they being rapidly destroyed? Philanthropy and government regulations alone simply aren't up to the task of rescuing nature, the authors argue. Environmentally minded innovators are therefore trying to harness a more potent force -- self-interest -- to preserve our life-support systems. Theirs is the quest portrayed in The New Economy of Nature.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews

Accepting that the rich now hold the environment hostage, and will only allow it to be saved if we make it worth their while, Daily (interdisciplinary science, Stanford U.) and journalist Ellison explain ways to reconstruct the natural world into goods and services, determine market values for each, and make sure everyone pays their share. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"The true value of Nature has usually been neglected in human activity. That can no longer be the case. Here, in a lively and readable book, environmental capital is included in the economic equation, and the power of this approach is shown through vivid example." — Moore

Daily and Ellison provide a clear vision of an economy that would reverse environmental degradation and restore both people and place. The examples they describe are compelling, full of hope, and ripe for replication." — Paul Hawken

"Public action and private philanthropy on behalf of conservation will be limited in scope in a free enterprise economy; harnessing the motives that have led to much progress in production is also needed. The authors have delineated the new movement to make conservation of natural resources financially rewarding and illustrate in a lively and probing manner many cases of profitable activities that also preserve the biosphere." — Kenneth J. Arrow

"Put together an outstanding scientist, and outstanding writer, and an outstanding idea made refreshingly compelling: the result is a lively and outstanding book. Daily and Ellison show us why conservation pays." — Jared Diamond

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