Revaluing Ecosystems: Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making

This World Resources Institute briefing proposes six pathways to integrate ecosystem values into public and private decision-making to prevent ecosystem degradation. These pathways include updating national economic accounts, improving ecosystem assessments, investing in natural infrastructure and the food and beverage sector, using bonds for agricultural restoration, and enhancing community resilience tools.

• The document identifies six complementary pathways to scale up the inclusion of ecosystem values in public and private decision making to promote long-term thinking and incentivize the protection and restoration of ecosystems. These pathways are: mainstreaming ecosystem values in national economic accounts; building capacity for more pragmatic ecosystem assessments; highlighting the benefits of investing in natural infrastructure; investing in ecosystems to reduce risk in the food and beverage sector; using bonds as financial tools to restore ecosystems in agricultural landscapes; and using knowledge and communication tools to promote more resilient communities, especially after disasters.
• Current efforts to incorporate ecosystem values into decision-making via government, private sector, and partnerships are not progressing fast enough to stop the current rates of ecosystem loss and degradation. This is attributed to the fact that essential services—such as water regulation, climate regulation, pollution filtering, and pollination—are frequently treated as having no value and are managed for short-term gain.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Revaluing Ecosystems: Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making. https://www.wri.org/research/revaluing-ecosystems

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Revaluing Ecosystems: Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/revaluing-ecosystems.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Revaluing Ecosystems: Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making |url=https://www.wri.org/research/revaluing-ecosystems |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendrevaluing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Revaluing Ecosystems: Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/revaluing-ecosystems}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }