ABSTRACT
We are in the midst of one of the largest extinction events in the planet, 1,000 times higher than fossil records according to the 2005 United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the first that is caused by human action. This chapter proposes the creation of global market mechanisms to forestall the rapid and possibly irreversible loss of species and ecosystems that is taking place on land and seas. The aim is to organize the use of the global commons, in principles and in practice, during a period of rapid disorganized and potentially dangerous globalization that is stretching the limits of the Earth’s resources.
