Focus panel 13 – Repairing and restoring Nature in a beyond growth perspective: is putting a price on biodiversity the right way to go?

Summary

“Natural capital", “nature markets”, "net gain principle", "ecosystem services", "nature-based solutions" or "polluter pays principle" are emerging environmental concepts and principles proposing a financial and monetary approach to the repair and restoration of environmental damage. The purpose of this panel is to discuss this growing role of monetary valuations and market based solutions and biocredits in national, European and international biodiversity frameworks. Natural capital accounting is now implemented in the EU and many other countries, and new policy tools and market schemes aimed at protecting biodiversity are being put forward. How promising are these new initiatives? What role should they have in our conservation policies and which lessons can we learn from the past? How can we put a price on nature? Can market mechanisms lead to superior conservation outcomes? Are we creating rights to pollute and destroy the environment and ecosystems through offset markets?

Chair

• Marie Toussaint - MEP (Greens/EFA), Beyond Growth Conference organiser

Speakers

• Marco Lambertini - Special Envoy, WWF International
• Vandana Shiva - Physicist, social and environmental activist, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author
• Frédérique Chlous - Professor at the National Museum of Natural History (Paris) and President of the Scientific Council of the French Biodiversity Office
• Clive Spash - Social Ecological Economist
• Frederic Hache - Director and Co-founder of the Green Finance Observatory