Media Coverage & Publicity
Articles
Stanford biologist sees money in preservation
San Francisco Chronicle, August 18, 2008
“Gretchen Daily wants to protect the planet by convincing governments and big investors there's money to be made - or at least saved - in preserving nature instead of exploiting it.”
Development vs. Paradise Lost: Assessing the costs
Stanford Report, July 17, 2008
“Part of the answer may lie in a software program being developed by [Gretchen] Daily and her colleagues at the Natural Capital Project, Peter Kareiva and Taylor Ricketts, heads of science at the Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund, respectively. The software is called InVEST, which stands for Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs.”
Mark His Words: New Nature Conservancy prez Mark Tercek
“I think you could say these economic values have never been properly calculated or factored into an enormous range of economic decision-making. Organizations like The Nature Conservancy have a great opportunity to help governments and businesspeople better understand the dollar-and-cents values of those services.”
The Market Force of Nature: Putting the "invisible hand" to work for nature could reshape the values of capitalism
“We're trying to find ways to get information about the value of ecosystems and the benefits that they provide to governments, conservation organizations, and development banks," says [Heather] Tallis. "The whole underlying thinking is that with better information about these values, people will make better decisions.”
Earth for Hire
Common Ground Magazine, April 2008
“In 2006, Stanford's Woods Institute, where [Gretchen] Daily is a senior fellow, joined forces with the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund to create the Natural Capital Project, which is developing tools for measuring the services specific ecosystems provide, determining what they're worth, and identifying who's benefiting from them.”
Stanford biologist Gretchen Daily awarded Sophie Prize
MSNBC/Associated Press, March 4, 2008
“Daily is recognized for pioneering research that blends economics and ecology. The author of three books, including The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable, Daily co-founded the Natural Capital Project, which is developing practical ways to quantify the economic value of ecosystems and the services they provide.”
Read the Stanford University Press Release
Read the Sophie Foundation Press Release
Paying for Nature
China Dialogue, February 18, 2008
“Beijing's strategy for clean water during the Olympics? Pay rural farmers to 'grow' it. Katherine Ellison explores China's new hope for conserving the precious natural resources it has left. Last September...several Chinese government-affiliated scientists met with a team from the Natural Capital Project - a year-old partnership between Stanford University, The Nature Conservancy and WWF. The project has developed mapping and modeling software to pinpoint landscapes where conservation makes the most sense, a tool that has great potential to help the Chinese government fine-tune its concept of preserving 'ecological function zones.'”
Innovate or Watch Rare Species Disappear
New Scientist, September 13, 2007
“Championed by [Gretchen] Daily and Peter Kareiva, lead scientist with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), among others, the [goal of an emerging trend known as the “ecosystem services” approach] is to put a monetary value on the services that healthy ecosystems provide for human populations - from the role of forest cover in preventing soil erosion and flooding, to the pollination of crops by insects, and revenues from ecotourism. Conservationists would then work with local governments, industry and the financial markets to set up incentives encouraging measures for the protection of ecosystems and the vital services they provide.”
Natural Capital Project Names R. Michael Wright as First Managing Director
Stanford Report, September 12, 2007
“In modern society, we seem to have lost touch of the fundamental dependence we have on conserving nature,” said Wright, who has served as director of conservation and sustainable development at the Chicago-based John T. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation since 2002. “It is critical to show how humans benefit from nature by calculating the real economic value of those benefits. That's exactly what the Natural Capital Project wants to achieve.”
Q&A with Gretchen Daily
Stanford Report, August 22, 2007
“We want to make it easy for decision-makers to assess natural capital stocks in both biophysical and economic terms. Our first big effort is developing what's basically a calculator of the value of natural capital that we're calling InVEST - Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs. This is a software system that will let you put in basic data on your place to determine the potential for producing all the things we get from ecosystems, not only crops and other commodities but climate stability, flood control services, ecotourism and so forth.”
Sustainable Agriculture Should Become New Farm Bill Priority
San Jose Mercury News, July 26, 2007
“[Senator] Harkin's (D-IA) draft bill is notable for using the phrase ‘ecosystem services’ for the first time in a Farm Bill debate, as he advocates rewarding farmers who increase benefits such as soil fertility and pollinator habitat. The choice of wording highlights an increasing pragmatism among environmental advocates who are convinced it's time to focus American taxpayers' attention less on threatened peregrine falcons and more on humans' threatened life support systems.”
Editorial by Katherine Ellison and Buzz Thompson
Conserving Life and Livelihood: Does conservation really benefit the poor?
“Peter Kareiva of Seattle, Washington, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, presented an analysis of almost 200 development projects run by the World Bank, some of which had environmental components. Encouragingly, he found that development projects with built-in conservation goals were no less effective than those without them, as measured by the World Bank's evaluations.”
How to Get Wall Street to Hug a Tree
Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2007
“Environmentalists and investment bankers are working together to put a price tag on nature. The new ‘greens’ think that human beings are ready to start paying for Mother Nature’s services - and that calculating their financial worth will save the planet.”
Scientists Discuss the Importance of Ethics in Creating a Culture of Sustainability
Stanford Report, March 7, 2007
“Paul Ehrlich cited the Natural Capital Project, a ‘new and unprecedented partnership’ involving Stanford, the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, which, he said, ‘aspires to provide maps of nature's services, assess their values in economic and other terms, and - for the first time on any significant scale - incorporate those values into resource decisions.’”
The New Environmentali$m
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, January 2007
“The basic error in the way we calculate GDPs is that they’ve never included the huge economic value of ecosystems. Forests help purify water and control soil erosion, for example, and coral reefs nurture fish.”
Natural Capital Project to Quantify True Value of Nature, Ecosystem Services
Stanford Report, November 8, 2006
“This project brings together the expertise of leading field conservationists and a world-class university,” said Steve McCormick, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “We are really excited about this project,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of WWF. “It’s one of the coolest things in conservation today.”
Capturing Carbon Tips Cost-Benefit Balance in Favor of Conservation
Scientific American,October 31, 2006
“Efforts to save wildlife often play out within a win-lose framework that pits conservation against economic opportunity,” Kai Chan adds. “The management of both land- and sea-scapes will produce far greater benefits for people when we analyze ecosystem services in a systematic fashion.”
Conservation Central's The Daily Show
Ecosystem Marketplace, August 1, 2006
“Local researchers and the three institutions will develop maps and dynamic models of the flow of ecosystem services, in both biophysical and economic terms, in each region. ‘At a minimum, we'd be mapping out carbon, hydrological services - and there are different ones - and then biodiversity at the three main sites,’ Daily says.”
Video & Audio
California Colloquium on Water
Sponsored by the UC Berkeley Water Resource Center Archives, March 11, 2008
Streaming Video: “Protecting Watershed Services Through Law, Regulation and Markets,” Buzz Thompson, Director, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University (YouTube, RealMedia, PDF of PowerPoint).
Ecosystem Services Perceptions in Clayquot Sound, British Columbia
Carleton College Alumni Profile: Bessie Schwarz, February 19, 2008
Streaming Video: “For an ecosystem services study, Schwarz interviewed 17 Clayoquot Sound residents—those employed in ecotourism, commercial fishing, and aquaculture—about environmental issues and how they perceive and value the ecosystem in which they live. The study was supported by a fellowship from Carleton College, the Natural Capital Project, and the University of British Columbia,” Bessie Schwarz, Research Intern, Natural Capital Project.
Ecosystem Services in Decision-making: Stepping into reality
Ecological Society of America and Society for Ecological Restoration Joint Meeting, August 9, 2007
Streaming Video: “What's Poverty Got To Do With It?” Peter Kareiva, Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy.
Ecosystem Services in Decision-making: Stepping into reality
Ecological Society of America and Society for Ecological Restoration Joint Meeting, August 9, 2007
Streaming Video: “Lessons from the field: What we know about implementation of ecosystem service projects and payment for ecosystem services in the real world,” Heather Tallis, Lead Scientist, Natural Capital Project.
Made in China: Energy and Environment Public Lecture Series
Streaming Video: “Towards Harmony of Man and Nature in China--Sustaining nature's life-support systems,” Christine Tam, Director, Natural Capital Project.
Natural Capital Project Launch Event: 2006 Science for Nature Symposium, Ecosystem Services
Hosted by WWF in Washington, DC, October 31 - November 1, 2006
Streaming Videos and Slideshows featuring: Pam Matson, Jeffrey Sachs, Walt Reid, Paul Ehrlich, Franz Tattenbach, Steve Polasky, Neil Burgess, Tom Lovejoy, Andrew Balmford, Christine Tam, Stefano Pagiola, Miguel Martinez Tuna, Taylor Ricketts, Gordon Orians, Alvaro Umana, Rebecca Shaw, John-O Niles, Ian Calder, and Rashid Sumaila.