Putting a price tag on Europe's protected areas

What is the price of a national park or a nature reserve? This is one of the main questions hundreds of people from 30 countries asked as they gathered to celebrate 100 years of nature conservation at the annual EUROPARC Federation conference, hosted last week by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in Strömstad, Sweden.

Pavan Sukhdev, author of the Report on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB report), was one of the keynote speakers. He says while the world is searching for new ways to cope with carbon emissions and combat climate change the answer can often be found in the world’s protected areas. “There is a natural carbon capture and storage system based on technology that’s millions of years old. It’s called a tree,” commented Sukhdev. 

But the value of services essential to human life that nature provides has so far been ignored. If the world is going to take care of its natural resources it needs to put a price tag on these ecosystem services, frequently found in protected areas. “It’s time to get on with environmental accounting. You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” stated Sukhdev, who works for the Deutsche Bank. 

Two-thirds of all ecosystems are in a state of degradation. Climate change is a major cause of this. Thirty percent of all known species may disappear before the end of the century. That is the equivalent of 2.5 billion dollars of biodiversity lost each year; twice as much as the total loss in the recent financial crisis.

EUROPARC Federation President Erika Stanciu welcomes and encourages the growing recognition for the invaluable services nature provides. “We see a time when it’s not just nature conservationists working for this. We look forward to people from all sectors cooperating to achieve a sustainable future when protected areas will not be just pockets but cover most of the planet.

The EUROPARC Federation is the largest NGO representing European protected areas in 39 countries, with the common aim of conserving Europe's unique variety of wildlife, habitats and landscapes.

“During the past 100 years we have built a solid foundation for nature conservation,” said Stanciu. “But when future generations celebrate the next centenary of national parks I hope the ratio will have shifted and respect and protect all of our natural heritage across the globe.

There are more than 100,000 protected areas covering almost 19 million square kilometres worldwide, but this only represents 11.5 percent of the earth's land surface. There are 43,000 sites in Europe.

For more information please contact:

Morwenna Parkyn, Communications Officer, EUROPARC Federation, m.parkyn@europarc.org, +49 (0)8552 961 021