THE ECONOMICS OF ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY
<http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/index_en.htm>
At the meeting of the environment ministers of the G8 countries and
the five major newly industrialising countries that took place in
Potsdam in March 2007, the German government proposed a study on ‘The
economic significance of the global loss of biological diversity’ as
part of the so-called ‘Potsdam Initiative’ for biodiversity.
The following wording was agreed at Potsdam: ‘In a global study we
will initiate the process of analysing the global economic benefit of
biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the
failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective
conservation.’