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These are the commercially useful values that are used to market and sell the product. It could include a variety of wild gene resources that scientists can trade to introduce desirable features into crops and domesticated animals.
Many sectors, such as the paper industry, plywood industry, railway sleeper industry, silk industry, textile industry, ivory-works, leather industry, pearl industry, and so on, are reliant on the productive use values of biodiversity.
At the global level, biodiversity conservation is linked to a variety of factors. It raises important considerations about the price tag. It is concerned with the value of biodiversity in terms of the economic domain. In other words, one must determine the value of a species to be conserved as well as the amount of money required for the protection of biodiversity components.
Utilisation that is beneficial The economic value of commercially obtained products for exchange in informal marketplaces, such as game meat, timber, fish, ivory, and medicinal herbs, is referred to as value. They are accounted for in national income accounts such as the Gross National Product.
Consumptive use value is typically ascribed to items consumed locally but not bought or sold, and hence do not contribute to a country’s economy. People who “live off the land” rely on nature to provide them with the necessities of life. Their standard of living would undoubtedly deteriorate if environmental quality deteriorated for whatever cause.
Productive use-value Goods extracted from the environment that is bought and sold locally, nationally, or worldwide are given productive use-values. Construction lumber, fuelwood, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables, and seaweed are only a few of the major goods. The worth of these products is determined by the amount paid at the first point of sale less the expenses up to that point, not by the final retail cost of the product. As a result, this value could be deceiving, as what appears to be a minor natural product could be the foundation for major manufactured goods.
Direct values
These are the methods by which we can directly profit from biodiversity. Plants, for example, can be used as food in the laboratory to create medicines. This category includes both economic and recreational value.
Direct values are further divided into the following categories:
Value of Consumptive Use: These are values for biodiversity items that can be harvested and consumed directly, including fuel, food, pharmaceuticals, and fibre.
Productive use-values are the commercially useful values that are used to market and sell the product. It could include a variety of wild gene resources that scientists can trade to introduce desirable features into crops and domesticated animals.
Non-Consumptive Values or Indirect Values
These are how we don’t directly use a plant or animal, yet it provides services that maintain the ecosystem healthy under its presence. Following are the types of non-consumptive values.
Values in society
The increasing usage of resources by affluent societies is the social value of biodiversity. If biodiversity is not included in the product, it will be used or sold locally. ‘Ecosystem people,’ on the other hand, cherish biodiversity as a source of income as well as for cultural and religious reasons. Aside from traditional agricultural methods, farmers have begun to get financial incentives in recent years to raise each commodity for national or worldwide markets rather than for local consumption. Local food shortages, unemployment, landlessness, and an increased risk of drought and flooding have resulted as a result of this.
Moral and ethical values
Every species on the planet has a moral right to exist. Every culture, religion, and society in the world has its own set of ethical standards. The conservation of biodiversity is related to several cultural, moral, and ethical values. In our country, tribal people have kept a great number of sacred grooves or delis in several states. These sacred woods, which surround ancient sacred places and temples, serve as wild plant gene banks.
Value for money
For our survival, we rely greatly on biological products. Because it is a source of vital items, biodiversity has economic worth.
The following are some of these items:
Agriculture, the basic foundation of human survival, is reliant on plants and animals.
Medicinal plants and animals are used to make a huge number of medications. Belladonna and Cinchonas are valuable medicinal herbs. Snake venom is used in the production of pharmaceuticals.
Industry’s source of raw resources.
It aids in the development of a country’s economy. Revenue or income is generated by industries and agriculture. They also help to create jobs. Many countries’ economies are largely reliant on biodiversity.
Aesthetic appeal Aesthetic Value
Biodiversity has a high aesthetic value. No one wants to explore enormous swaths of the desolate country with no evident indications of life. People travel from all over the world to visit wilderness areas where they may appreciate the aesthetic value of biodiversity; this sort of tourism is now known as eco-tourism.
The “willingness to pay” notion of eco-tourism provides us with a monetary gain for biodiversity’s aesthetic worth. Eco-tourism is predicted to bring in $12 billion per year, approximately equaling the aesthetic value of biodiversity.
Ecological worth
Every species has a distinct job to play in the ecosystem. It keeps the ecological equilibrium by doing this job. As a result, ecosystems are not affected. So, even if we don’t use a plant or animal to make products in our industries, its presence in the wild provides us with a variety of valuable services. These functions keep the biosphere and ecological equilibrium in check.
These are some of the services available
Management of Waste: Nature has a special way of dealing with garbage. One organism’s waste produces food for another organism. As a result, waste does not accumulate. For example, during photosynthesis, trees absorb greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. This contributes to the reduction of global warming. Due to transpiration, forests also contribute to precipitation. Many additional plants and animals contribute to the health of forests. As a result, the total biodiversity contributes to climate stability.
Option Values
These are the biodiversity potentials that are currently unknown and need to be researched. There’s a chance we’ll find a treatment for AIDS or cancer in the depths of a tropical jungle or a sea ecosystem.
Thus, the worth of knowing that biological resources exist on this biosphere that could one day prove to be an effective alternative for anything essential in the future is known as the option value. As a result of the choice value of biodiversity, any species could one day prove to be a miracle species.
Educational value or scientific worth
Biodiversity is extremely valuable in terms of science. Our research involves a wide range of plant and animal species. We use a variety of species in our studies and gain a lot of knowledge from them. We discover better ways to make medicines, production of hybrid plants, designs belonging to engineering, and various things which are very important to the human race, research on plants, insects, and animals. Velcro, for example, was inspired by cockle-burrs, which stick to our clothing as we walk through the woods.
Spiritual and cultural significance
Many human traditions are intertwined with a variety of plant and animal species. Hindus, for example, consider owls to be the Goddess Lakshmi’s vehicle. Many religions identify with such flora and animals, giving them cultural or spiritual significance.
Conclusion
Biodiversity provides a range of things, from agricultural crops to medicines and textiles, to which a direct value and cost can be attributed. The direct economic value of the natural environment can be separated into two categories: those related to consumption and those involved with the production, or consumptive and productive use-values.
