Costing Nature

Note that this is a static, global analysis but Co$ting Nature can also be accessed as an interactive Policy Support System

Access these data in CostingNature using Google Maps, Earth and Earth API here

CostingNature is a system to value the services provided to humanity by protected areas globally. We have started with water. Here we quantify the proportion of water in the world’s rivers that originates from protected areas and the number of people drinking water from protected areas.

The proportion of the water in your river that fell as rain in a protected area

The percentage of water in rivers that fell as rain in protected areas

Water from protected areas is often purer and better regulated than water that comes from agricultural land or urban surfaces. Water is one of the many ‘environmental services’ provided by nature to humankind and understanding the importance of these helps focus resources of the protection of the ecosystems that provide those services.

The number of people drinking water that fell as rain in protected areas

Where there are concentrations of protected areas and dense human populations we find that many tens of thousands of people per square km are sustained by water that is filtered through protected areas

Access these data in CostingNature using Google Maps, Earth and Earth API here