Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Environmental Damages: An Imperative Tool for Decision Making and Sustainability

Abstract

Economics being a major field in management has paved its way into environment to tackle the issues concerned with environmental/ecosystem services degradation and is acting as an aspect of human wellbeing and sustainability. Environmental degradation due to pollution is very well known and is measured thoroughly throughout the world. However, the end point impacts are seldom measured and not reported. There are very few responsible companies in the world who are aware about this fact and are reporting these externalities, or the third-party impacts, of their businesses. Various facets of ecosystem services on the other hand are known and have various measurement frameworks as well. The current paper discusses both the aspects i.e. ecosystem services and environmental externalities with respect to assessment techniques and highlights the way in which these fields have developed over the years along with their current methods and trends. The paper will help researchers and policy makers, working in this field, by making them aware about various means by which these estimations can be done so that the gap between environmental degradation and sustainability can be bridged.