Date:
Thursday, August 1, 2013 - 17:30
Event:
Presenter:
Mr Carl Obst and Mr Charles Berger, ACF
Venue:
John Connell Auditorium, 21 Bedford Street North Melbourne
Event Details:
How can natural systems be fully valued in decision-making processes? In the past, vital connections between ecological systems and human wellbeing have often been ignored in economic analysis and policy decisions. More recently, techniques such as ecosystem service valuation, and natural capital accounting, can help make environmental values more explicit. The Australian Conservation Foundation has itself conducted economic analyses of several crucial ecosystems as part of building a case for their protection.
Yet such methods, while useful, have their own irreducible limitations. Given our incomplete knowledge about ecosystem functioning, and about future developments in technology and human value systems, complete quantification of the value of our environment is neither possible nor desirable. Rather than reducing our environment to mere numbers, environmental accounting should be used to inform precautionary, wise and participatory decisions.
This seminar will explore the emerging process of environmental-economic accounting both at a national level through the release of Australia’s first environmental economic accounts, as well as at an international level.