ABSTRACT
Historically, marine conservation has been the remit of ecologists. However, considering that the need for conservation is caused by pressures on the marine environment solely derived from human activities, the core of conservation resides in affecting human behaviour, which is ultimately achieved through political, cultural, education and awareness actions. In spite of widespread agreement on the need to conserve the marine environment, progress is too slow to be able to match the rate of degradation. Many conservation ecologists argue that a most effective way of saving nature involves its 'commodification' through the attribution of economic values to biodiversity and to ecosystem services. Market-oriented mechanisms for conservation work under the assumption that by identifying ecosystem services and quantifying their economic value, it will be possible to induce decision makers to fully perceive the costs of environmental destruction and biodiversity loss, and to work to preserve nature.
