GDP and market metrics selling nature and climate change short, warn scientists

The focus of the report by IPBES - the body that covers biodiversity as the IPCC does climate change - is to highlight the vast array of ways in which different people value nature

Ringfencing the biodiversity of a forest might exclude local populations that depend on it for their livelihoods; on the other hand, a development project may create jobs but lead to species loss and destroy heritage sites of cultural value. File photo

What is the value of a river? Is it for the nutritional content of the fish it sustains? The economic benefit of the local livelihoods it supports? Or does the river have its own value which humans cannot measure?

Such questions may seem removed from the issues the world faces, from deepening climate change and environment loss to food and energy crises fuelled by war and pandemic.