- Countries around the globe are now recognizing that their natural assets – forests, water, land, minerals and energy sources – contribute vast wealth to their economies.
- These first-movers are committing to undertake natural capital accounting as a way of factoring nature’s services into economic decision-making, where it traditionally had gone unaccounted for in measures like GDP.
Forests are often described as the "lungs of the Earth," but oxygen generation is just one function they perform in their complex relationship with the atmosphere and people. They also help regulate air quality, soak up rainwater and recycle it, prevent soil erosion, and maintain the climate by storing large quantities of carbon.
Despite this multi-tasking, the value of forests is only measured in a country’s national accounts by the timber and fuel they provide. The total contribution of forests to other sectors of the economy is either invisible or undervalued.
See full Press Release:
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/04/22/governments-embrace-natural-capital-accounting
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