Bringing the Value of Nature into the Economic Mainstream

Nature provides numerous benefits to people and essential life support, but the values of nature are often largely invisible in market economies (“nature works for free”). An ongoing partnership between the Natural Capital Project and the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), a global network of researchers and policymakers conducting quantitative analysis of international trade and environmental policies, is working to change this. The integration of global economic models with ecosystem service models can quantify how nature contributes to the economic bottom-line including income, employment, and international trade that are central to government and corporate decision-making.