ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a formal taxonomy of the types of economic value identified in the economics literature. It discusses a few conceptual issues relevant to the subsequent resource valuations. The chapter reviews the methodology and data used for the valuation of Brazil’s mineral, wood, and soil accounts, and presents overall depletion estimates in each case. Direct use values are based on the contribution of natural resources to the value-added of a given final commodity sold in a market. The direct use value of a resource is not simply its world market price. If the cost of extracting and transporting the resource to market exceeded the price that it would fetch, the activity would not be undertaken in the first place. Indirect use values refer to the ecological benefits provided by many of earth’s natural resources that many of us take for granted.
