Bangkok Post - Price tag on the planet? Helping business value nature

PARIS - From agriculture to housing to transportation, economic growth has historically depended on burning through finite natural resources and rearranging natural landscapes.

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.

One idea gaining currency is to assign nature an economic value.

"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.

"We have increased economic growth at the expense of nature."