Making the value of nature visible - necessary but not sufficient to achieve conservation goals

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned that 60% of the benefits nature provides to people are being degraded or used unsustainably . This triggered widespread efforts to design and use ecosystem service assessments and tools around the world. Ecosystem services are the benefits nature provides to people, like purifying water and sequestering carbon to limit harmful climate change). These efforts are often not just scientific research projects. They have explicit aims to achieve conservation and human development goals, by integrating the many values of nature in decision-making, policies, and business operations. Ultimately, the hope is that making the value of nature more visible will help put society on a sustainable development trajectory.