Minister Marina Silva: World needs to discuss “value” of nature

Brazil’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, said Wednesday (Jan. 17) the services provided by nature cannot be “priced,” given its value to the planet and to human beings.

The statement was made at the 54th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Minister Silva was a guest on the panel Putting a Price on Nature.

“There’s an example I like to cite: the Amazon produces 20 billion tons of water a day. The forest uses half of this water, and half is released into the atmosphere, which is responsible for our rainfall patterns, to which 75 percent of South America’s GDP is tied. If we were to pump up this water, we’d need 50 thousand Itaipu plants. Can anyone imagine an investment like that, pumping water uninterruptedly in order to feed our hydrological system?” she questioned.

“Nature can do this using only the land, its nutrients, the forest, the sun, and the wind. It is an invaluable ecosystem service,” she noted.

She described the term “price” as strange and suggested it should be replaced with “value.”

“I think ‘value’ refers to something beyond what we can price, because nature has values which our current form and stage cannot yet reach. We could only price something that could be produced,” she argued.

She went on to say that Brazil will propose a debate at the G-20 on payments for ecosystem services, in order to preserve them for the good of the planet.