This Handbook describes the types of values usually associated with biodiversity. While there are exceptions to the need to prioritise economic values over other values, economic valuation has a sound theoretical foundation that can help clarify the tradeoffs implicit in public policy decisions.

This OECD Handbook shows how public policy in the form of market creation can be used to internalise the loss of biodiversity. It promotes the use of markets to ensure that our collective preferences for conservation and sustainable use are reflected in economic outcomes.

In this volume of the TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) publication series, the key concepts of the project are applied to local and regional policy and public management. The aim is to show that by taking nature's benefits into account, decision makers can promote local development to ensure human well-being and economic growth and stability, while maintaining environmental sustainability. The book explores the potential for local development provided by an approach based on nature. It offers examples of successful implementation of this approach from across the world, highlighting the importance of local decision making in management and planning. It provides tools and practical guidance for reform, and throughout the volume the economic benefits of environmental consideration at a local level are expounded. This book is intended to offer inspiration and practical suggestions for the improvement and sustainable management of the environment and human well-being. The local aspect of this book complements the focus of the previous three volumes, completing the set to provide a comprehensive approach to simultaneously improving and maintaining economic and environmental stability, as well as human well-being.

A comprehensive report on OECD activities in 2002-2003.

All societies depend on biodiversity and biological resources, and policy makers are increasingly aware that development pressures are today generating unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss. The fact that biodiversity issues often receive low priority in policy decisions is at least in part due to problems involved in assessing its contribution to society -- these values defy easy description and quantification. What cannot be quantified, or is difficult to monitor and evaluate, is easy to disregard. The result is that biodiversity fails to compete on a level playing field in policy decisio.

This book is designed to help policy makers put together strategies for anticipating distributive impacts of biodiversity policy across different groups; and for selecting processes and instruments that manage distributive impacts without compromising conservation and use objectives.