8 October 2015: BBC Earth has launched a pilot model for an Earth Index that demonstrates the financial contribution of nature to the global economy. The creation of the Index, by BBC Earth and Tony Juniper, was also supported by the UN Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), which conducted a scoping study to identify the research and methodologies that have attempted to place an economic value on nature.

The UNEP-WCMC study reveals that existing endeavors to place a monetary value on ecosystem-provided goods and services tend to focus on assets that have global benefits. It also finds a lack of consistency between the various valuation methodologies in use and notes that eco-services with cultural, sacred or religious value cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

The Earth Index focuses on the value of specific ecosystem services, such as improved water storage capacity, enhanced water purity, and flood risk reduction provided by North American beavers. One study of beavers in the Escalante Basin in Utah, the US calculates that the population of 6,500 beavers has a value of US$796 million per year.

The Index is accompanied by an interactive feature, ‘Cost the earth,’ which challenges people to guess the value of global companies such as Starbucks compared to natural assets such as otters. [UNEP-WCMC Press Release] [BBC Earth]