As the IUCN World Conservation Congress kicks off in France on Friday, an urgent question will be how to reduce the devastation wrought by humanity on the environment."It's the only way to speak the same language as political decision-makers," Nathalie Girouard, an expert on environmental policy at intergovernmental think tank OECD, told AFP.Chemical-intensive agriculture, over-fishing, pollution and climate change are all pushing ecosystems to the brink of collapse.
Mary Ruckelshaus, head of the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University, acknowledges that it is a complex task. "What's the cultural value of the mangrove forest to an indigenous community who lives in Belize? Priceless," she continues. Using the natural capital as the guiding principle, proponents favour integrating natural resources into the calculation of a country's wealth.