ABSTRACT
Should we protect biodiversity? Why? To what extent? One way to try to answer these questions is to determine how much a given quantum of biodiversity is worth in monetary terms and to compare that value to the cost of protecting it. A standard framework for making this comparison is cost-benefit analysis. In fact, under executive orders issued by United States presidents over the last several decades, cost-benefit analysis has become the executive branch’s dominant evaluative framework for federal agencies’ rules, including rules aimed at protecting biodiversity (Heinzerling 2014). It is thus worth paying attention to cost-benefit analysis and the signals it sends about the reasons for protecting biodiversity and the proper extent of our commitment to it.
