USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
China
Home / China / China

Ecosystem's value measured

China Daily | Updated: 2013-02-26 08:05

China on Monday launched a pilot gross ecosystem product evaluation system to break away from the GDP-above-all mentality.

The system is the first of its type and will be launched in the Kubuqi Desert in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the seventh-largest desert in China.

The standard will measure the total economic value of all ecosystem products and services that nature provides for human well-being. The program will be jointly launched by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Elion Foundation.

It will develop a pilot program to establish an evaluation framework for GEP and identify practical policies, technology and institutional arrangements for establishing a GEP accounting system, according to the statement.

"If we only measure economic growth using GDP, we do not capture the vast environmental costs incurred, thus creating a false impression of economic prosperity," said Huang Yi, a professor on environmental science at Peking University.

"Besides the current GDP, we hope the GEP accounting system can be used as a new standard to evaluate local economic and social development in the future," said Zhu Chunquan, China program officer of the IUCN.

- Jin Zhu

Editor's picks
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US