From David Prichard
You refer to the “ecosystem services” of rainforests as having “a commercial value of zero” (5 April, p 5). I understand that we derive about half our drugs and medicines from the gene pool of the world’s flora and fauna, but that we have researched only about one-tenth of the species in the ecosystems of rainforests, in which about 80 per cent of the entire gene pool exists.
It seems that far from being of zero commercial value, this is of potentially great value, and further reason to protect forests.
The editor writes:
• We were referring to the practice – common to many economists, including Karl Marx – of assigning a value of zero to natural resources.
Advertisement
Geraldton, Western Australia
