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On the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it is
timely to assess progress over the 10 years since its predecessorin
Rio de Janeiro. Loss and degradation of remaining natural habitatshas
continued largely unabated. However, evidence has been accumulatingthat such systems generate marked economic benefits, which theavailable data suggest exceed those obtained from continued habitatconversion. We estimate that the overall benefit:cost ratio ofan
effective global program for the conservation of remainingwild nature
is at least 100:1.
1 Conservation Biology Group, Department
of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
2 Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at
Conservation International, 1919 M Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington,
DC 20036, USA.
3 Centre for Social and Economic
Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), School of Environmental
Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
4 Center for Environmental Science, Biology
Department and Institute for Ecological Economics, University of
Maryland, Box 38, Solomons, MD 20688, USA.
5 Graduate School of Public and International
Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
6 The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The
Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK.
7 UN
Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre
(UNEP-WCMC), 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 ODL, UK.
8 Green College, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HG, UK;
and Upper Meadow, Old Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 8SZ, UK.
9 Department of Zoology, University of Washington,
24 Kincaid Hall, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195-1800,
USA.
10 Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
a.balmford{at}zoo.cam.ac.uk
Address after Sept. 2002: Gund Institute of Ecological
Economics, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
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