The limits to economic valuation of biodiversity

In practice, monetary valuation of biotic resources by the concept of total economic value (TEV) is a powerful tool for a rational treatment of this fraction of natural capital and for its conservation. Beyond methodological limits to monetarisation with regard to its marginal character there are also moral limits. Adopting the weakest and least controversial assumptions regarding both mankind’s dependence on biodiversity and environmental ethics, one is led to the conclusion that the impossibility of communicating with future generations forbids us to value biodiversity only in monetary terms. Fairness towards futurity demands that we consider conservation as a constraint on economic activity.