Constructed upon the ideas of the MEA evaluation and inspired by “The Stern Review of Climate Change” (EU – 2006), this global study was initiated in 2007, following a meeting of environmental ministers from the G8+5 countries in Potsdam, Germany. The discussion centered on an analysis of the world economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of biodiversity loss, and the failure to take protection measures against the costs of efficient conservation. The TEEB initiative aims to make the values of nature visible, with the primary goal of transforming the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services into elements of impact at all levels of decision-making.
The study, designed in three phases, was launched by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) and the European Commission (EC) and conducted by Pavan Sukhdev between 2008–2011. Sukhdev stated that “the services ecosystems provide, most of these services are provided free. The challenge of the economical invisibility of nature comes exactly because of that. We use nature because she’s valuable and we lose nature because she’s free.”
Phase 1, completed in 2008, with the publication of an interim report titled with the initiative, which defines ecosystem services as “the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. The concept of “ecosystem goods and services” is synonymous with ecosystem services.”
The report continued in Phase 2 (2010) with 5 TEEB framework documents, detailing initial aspects, providing answers to raised questions, and solutions in key areas: the ecological and economic foundations (dealing with fundamental concepts and state-of-the-art methodologies for the economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services); the development of national and international policies (analyses and guidelines on the method of valuing and internalizing the values of biodiversity and ecosystems in policy decisions); local and regional policy (analyses and guidelines for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem values at the regional and local level, exemplified by case studies); and business and industry (analyses and guidelines on how enterprises and companies can identify and manage the risks and opportunities related to biodiversity and ecosystems), followed by a synthesis report offering useful policy recommendations for integrating the economy of nature into the decision-making process.
Phase 3 is still ongoing through UNEP, focusing on the application of the TEEB approach in policy implementation and in real-life case studies in 5 developing countries, as well as TEEB studies in various other nations. The TEEB portal aggregates these reports, ordered by country, sector, and biome, and its data library is constantly improving.
The studies follow the principles of the approach, which are: 1. Recognizing value in ecosystems, landscapes, species, and other aspects of biodiversity is a feature of all human societies and communities and is sometimes sufficient to ensure conservation and sustainable use. For example, the existence of sacred groves in some cultures has helped to protect natural areas and the biodiversity they contain. 2. Demonstrating value in economic terms is often useful for policymakers and others such as business in reaching decisions that consider the full costs and benefits of an ecosystem rather than just those costs or values that enter the markets in the form of private goods. An example would include calculating the costs and benefits of conserving the ecosystem services provided by wetlands in controlling floods compared to building flood defenses. The demonstration of an economic value even though it does not result in specific measures is an important aid in achieving efficient use of natural resources. 3. Capturing value involves the introduction of mechanisms that incorporate the values of ecosystems into decision-making through incentives and price signals. This can include payments for ecosystem services, reforming environmentally harmful subsidies or introducing tax breaks for conservation.
