Economic value of nature
This article was published in Panda bulletin Jan to march 2012 , by WWF MSO
Few days ago an investment banker asked me, weather it is possible to express nature conservation in monitory terms? Actually he was asking me why you antidevelopment people make so much of noise over reclaiming few mosquito infested mangrove swamps, few tigers , what’s a big deal if few species got vanished ? Instead becoming too much emotional, we must be practical and should concentrate on development and poverty eradication.
We naturalist always tries to prove our point on moral basis , for example we want to save Shivadi mudflats just because we want to see beautiful flamingoes in our backyard . We want species to be conserved because they look beautiful and charismatic. Many people will argue that, it is impossible to evaluate nature’s services like air, water, food medicines and many other things.
But in today’s world everything need to be prove scientifically, so I goggled weather anybody has ever tried to estimate value of Natural Services or not? I came across one very good paper “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital” by Robert Costanza and his team of economist and environment scientist , published in scientific journal NATURE dated 15 MAY 1997.They have tried to evaluate coast of natures services .they considered seventeen key services like air purification, water, nutrient cycle, soil formation , waste management, soil formation etc. They consider both marketable and non marketable services provided by nature, for example Forest provide us timber which is marketable , at the same time it conserve soil and, water which is non marketable .( Before any big project like mine , dam Environmental Impact assessment (EIA)is mandatory in India , most EIA do not even recognized these non marketable services . Actually any disruptions to these services coast people more than benefit of such big projects).They evaluate natures services value of ecosystem services were determined on basis how much it would cost to replicate them in a technologically produced, artificial Earth.Study estimated annual value of these services is US$16–54 trillion, with average of US$33 trillion. The real value is almost certainly much larger, even at the current margin. US$33 trillion is 1.8 time of size of world economy at that time.
We are eroding these freely available natural capital like never before , for example earlier it was very easy to catch fish just off to Mumbai coast but , with overfishing and high pollution dead zone around few kilometers off coast.
Acoording to Pavan Sukhdev, who is Banker with Dutch bank and Special Adviser to the United Nations Environment Programmer’s (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative. He says biodiversity is great capital of planet and if not managed smartly will end up fast. Till now because we have failed attached any economical value to natural capital. We are heading toward consumption and production of man-made goods and services, and we tend to gloss over nature." This, he says, has led to "bad accounting" which, in turn, has contributed to rapid biodiversity loss.
I also came across this stunning example,In 1987 botanical expedition to Borneo was undertaken under leadership of John Burley. They collected many plant samples which were deposited to National Cancer Institute(NCI) U.S.A. during routine screening one plant material showed hundred percent protection cytopathic protection against HIV 1 infection (Halt the development of disease symptoms in patient).This sample was ofCallophyllum family Guttiferae.Team was sent to Borneo, but tree was gone probably in local stove. Sample from another Callophyllum from same area showed no effect. Peter Stevens from Harward university identified tree as rare variety of Callophyllum lanigerumvariety ustrocoriaceum. Few trees were located at Singapore Botanical Garden .Scientist isolated compound Calanolide A from it which Inactivate reverse transcriptase enzyme of HIV virus and retard its cell division.
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| Nothapodytes nimmoniana from plant illustration.org |
Similar thing happened with Nothapodytes nimmoniana, (Narakya) which was very common tree In hills of western ghat until anti-tumour alkaloid isoquinoline and Camptothecin (CPT) was extracted from it . Before that it was just another fuel wood tree in ghats , With no synthetic sources of this alkaloid and with an increasing global demand, there has been a heavy dependence on naturally existing populations of N. nimmoniana. Because of this its bark is costlier than gold of same weight .Imagine what would have happened if in any of above mentioned species would have lost?
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full grown vechure cow with conventional breed cow.
image : Vechur conservation trust. |
Vechure cattle(Bos indicus) got its name from Vechure village in Kottayam district of Keralas. This is smallest cattle breed(cow up to 91 cm and bull up to 105 cm) in the world .This small wonder produce highest amount of milk in proportionate to its body weight.The most important genetic quality of the Vechur breed is the high fat content in milk - from 6.02 per cent to 7.86 percent. (For European breeds it is 3.5 and 4.5 %). They are quite resistant to foot and mouth disease and mastitis, two diseases which play havoc with hybrid cows in Kerala. Bull is also used in kerala for working in the marshy fields.
In 60s government introduce program to crossbreed Indian breed cows with exotic bulls to improve milk production. Maintaining . Livestock Act, 1961The Act states that " No person should keep a bull for breeding if attains a particular age except with license and other terms and conditions unless certified to be castrated". But bulls dedicated to the temples were exempted from provisions of the Act. Thus the Siva Temple of Vaikom had its role in averting the extinction of the breed. By the 1980’s the Vechur cattle became almost extinct. Proff. Sosamma Iype, from Veterinary College, Trissur, under the KAU became concerned about the loss of germplasm of the Vechur cattle . Her students conducted an extensive search for Vechur cows and bulls in Kottayam, Idukky, Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Trissur districts Since 1989 Conservation programme for this rare breed is being conserved by the Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) livestock farm at Mannuthy in an Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) founded ex-situ conservation program . Today, center, has reared over 120 of these cattles.
In 1997 Vandana Shiva wrote an article about alleged bio piracy of Vechure germeplasm by Roseline institute ,UK (This institute is known for first clone sheep Dolly). The Roslin Institute has been denying the use of genetic material from Indian cattle and it has also denied having any patent application based on such research. B patent search by Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in collaboration with Public Interest groups in Europe has confirmed that the Roslin Institute and the PPL Therapeutics (Scotland) Ltd. has 14 patent applications with the European Patent Office (EPO) and one of theseclearly refers to an Indian Cattle breed Bos indicus.Though controtrovercy is far from over it gives another strong reason in favore of conservation.
Vechure cattle in not a miracle , but result of complex interaction between Its genes and environment
Each species on this planet have its own niche , which it has claimed trough the process of millions of ears of evolution . Remember with extinction of each species gene pool and deleted novel molecules are lost forever .
My banker friend , in the year 1983 one heat resistant enzyme was isolate from ho water spring bacteria Thermus aquaticus . this enzyme has revolutionaries multibillion dollar biotechnology industry by enabling us to synthesize DNA.Yellowstone national park from where this bacteria was obtained is USAs first national park.
Moral of the story is , conservation of nature is not just emotional need of man , but it is essential for us to survive as species.
Ref
Future of life – E.O.Wilson,Borzoi Books
Robert Costanza et al The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital.NATURE, VOL 387, 15 MAY 1997
Biopiracy, Nature news, 27 August 1998.
