Ecosystems are capital goods. Biodiversity is a characteristic of ecosystems. In the terminology introduced in Chapter 1, it is an enabling asset.389 Biodiversity loss is not the same as environmental pollution. Air pollution would be bad even if it did not emanate from activities that harm biodiversity; we dislike pollution if only because it is bad for human health. In contrast to biodiversity, pollutants are a form of capital stock (but with a negative accounting price; Chapter 2).

In Chapter 2, we studied the sense in which ecosystems that are rich in biodiversity are productive. So one can argue that biodiversity’s value is derived from the productivity it confers on ecosystems. Against that is the view that biodiversity also has a value independent of its effects on the biosphere’s ability to produce goods and services for us.