ABSTRACT
Ecosystem services are therefore not the product of a linear chain from production to direct benefits by people with no feedbacks or any of the other complexities of the real world. All ecosystem services are, by definition, means to the end of human well-being. Some argue that valuation of ecosystems is either impossible or unwise. The issue of valuation is inseparable from the choices and decisions we have to make about ecological systems. Another often-made argument is that we should protect ecosystems for purely moral or aesthetic reasons, and we do not need valuations of ecosystems for this purpose. One hears a lot of talk these days about "ecosystem service markets". The problem is, conventional markets are not the right institution for managing many ecosystem services. Ruhl et al. document the "anti-ecosystem services bias" prevalent in American property law, regulation, and social norms.
