ABOUT THIS BOOK

Investing in Natural Capital presents the results of a workshop held following the second biannual conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics. It focuses on the relation of human development to natural capital, and the relation of natural capital to environmental processes.

Because we are capable of understanding our impact on the environment and the importance of managing it sustainably, humans play a special role in our ecosystem. The book emphasizes the essential connections between natural ecosystems and human socioeconomic systems, and the importance of insuring that both remain resilient. Specific chapters deal with methodology, case material, and policy questions, and offer a thorough exploration of this provocative and important alternative to conventional economics.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

The International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) is a not-for-profit organization concerned with integrating the study and management of nature's household (ecology) with humanity's household (economy). Ecological economics acknowledges that, in the end, a healthy economy can only exist in symbiosis with a healthy ecology.

The late AnnMari Jansson was Professor in the Department of Systems Ecology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden.

Monica Hammer works in the Department of Systems Ecology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden.

Carl Folke works at the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics.

Robert Costanza is Director of the Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Maryland, based in Solomons, Maryland, and coauthor of Ecosystem Health (Island Press, 1992).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About ISEE
Foreword
Preface

Chapter 1. Investing in Natural Capital—Why, What, And How?
-Abstract
-What Is Ecological Economics and Why Do We Need It to Achieve Sustainability?
-Research Issues for Ecological Economics
-Policy Recommendations
-Acknowledgments
-References

PART I. Perspectives on Maintaining and Investing in Natural Capital
Chapter 2. Operationalizing Sustainable Development by Investing in Natural Capital
Chapter 3. Ecological Economics and the Carrying Capacity of Earth
Chapter 4. New Science and New Investments for a Sustainable Biosphere
Chapter 5. Ecosystem Properties as a Basis for Sustainability
Chapter 6. Biotic Diversity, Sustainable Development, and Natural Capital
Chapter 7. Sustenance and Sustainability: How Can We Preserve and Consume without Major Conflict?
Chapter 8. Investing in Cultural Capital for Sustainable Use of Natural Capital

PART II. Ecological Economic Methods and Case-studies on the Significance of Natural Capital
Chapter 9. Environmental Functions and the Economic Value of Natural Ecosystems
Chapter 10. Rebuilding a Humane and Ethical Decision System for Investing in Natural Capital
Chapter 11. Re-allocating Work between Human and Natural Capital in Agriculture: Examples from India and the United States
Chapter 12. The Emergy of Natural Capital
Chapter 13. Modeling of Ecological and Economic Systems at the Watershed Scale for Sustainable Development
Chapter 14. Multiple Use of Environmental Resources: A Household Production Function Approach to Valuing Natural Capital
Chapter 15. Strategies for Environmentally Sound Economic Development
Chapter 16. Sea-level Rise and Coastal Wetlands in the U.K.: Mitigation Strategies for Sustainable Management
Chapter 17. Natural Capital and the Economics of Environment and Development
Chapter 18. Can We Justify Sustainability? New Challenges Facing Ecological Economics
Chapter 19. Renewable Resources as Natural Capital: The Fishery
Chapter 20. Ecological Footprints and Appropriated Carrying Capacity: Measuring the Natural Capital Requirements of the Human Economy

PART III. Environmental Management and Policy Implications: Adjusting Economic, Technical, Socio-Political, and Cultural Systems
Chapter 21. Three General Policies to Achieve Sustainability
Chapter 22. Implementing Environmental Policies in Central and Eastern Europe
Chapter 23. Energy Production, Consumption, Environment, and Sustainability
Chapter 24. Economic Conversion, Engineers, and Sustainability
Chapter 25. Public Policy: Challenge to Ecological Economics
Chapter 26. Investing in Natural and Human Capital in Developing Countries

Index

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