Differentiate Between Direct and Indirect use Value of Biodiversity
Despite its importance, determining the value or worth of biodiversity is complex and often a cause for debate. This is largely due to the fact that the worth placed on biodiversity is a reflection of underlying human values, and these values vary dramatically both among societies and individuals. The perspective of rural versus urban dwellers towards wildlife is one example. People that don’t live with elephants on a daily basis, appreciate elephants for their sheer size, charisma, and intelligence.
However, those who live near elephants tend to perceive them as a threat to people, crops, and property. Values are also dynamic; they change over time, and they depend on a specific situation. Both the diversity of values towards a species and the changes in values over time can be examined in the case of vultures in India. Once widespread throughout India, vultures are getting depleted.
The value of biodiversity is often divided into two main categories:
• UTILITARIAN (also known as instrumental, extrinsic, or use) value, and
• INTRINSIC (also known as inherent) value.
A living thing’s utilitarian value is determined by its use of the function. Usually, utilitarian value is measured in terms of its use for humans, such as for medicine or food. However, it can also represent the value of an organism to other living things or its ecological value; native bees, for example, serve as pollinators for many plants. In contrast, intrinsic value describes the inherent worth of an organism, independent of its value to anyone or anything else. In other words, all living things have a right to exist – regardless of their utilitarian value.
Determining the value or worth of biodiversity is complex. Economists typically subdivide utilitarian or use values of biodiversity into direct use value for those goods that are consumed directly, such as food or timber, and indirect use value for those services that support the items that are consumed, including ecosystem functions like nutrient cycling. There are several less tangible values that are sometimes called non-use or passive values, for things that we don’t use but would consider as a loss if they were to disappear; these include existence value, the value of knowing something exists even if you will never use it or see it, and bequest value, the value of knowing something will be there for future generations (Moran and Pearce 1994).
Potential or Option value refers to the user that something may have in the future; sometimes this is included as a use value, we have chosen to include it within the passive values here based on its abstract nature. The components included within the category of “utilitarian” values vary somewhat in the literature, for example, some authors classify spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic values as indirect use values, while others consider them to be non-use values, differentiated from indirect use values – such as nutrient cycling – because spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic values for biodiversity are not essential to human survival. Still, others consider these values as separate categories entirely. In this Unit, we include spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic values as a subset of indirect values or services, as they provide a service by enriching our lives.
The direct use value of biodiversity is self-evident there are many unknown compounds and processes that are inherently valuable to humanity that is provided by nature and its variance. Indirect use value is ever more lucrative and towering. Earth will become the jewel in our shared crown, the center of our human exploits for years to come. The value of a day on terra on a pristine beach is incalculable when intrepid women, men, and those in between venture forward into space-faring enterprises.
To feel the wind on one face, to view untamed wilderness, to spend the time to say goodbye to the superorganism that spawned us will become a sacred endeavor and a prayer shared on all our lips. Anything can be made sacred why not edify and reinforce our connection with nature before we set out to become masters of it.
Direct economic value includes the direct use of plants and animals such as in farming. Indirect value includes the role a healthy ecosystem plays in the cycle of matter and climate stability. Biodiversity is the difference between living organisms from various sources, including terrestrial, marine, and desert habitats, and the ecological complexes of which they are part. The richness and variety of life on earth are defined by biodiversity. It is our planet’s most dynamic and important feature. Life will not be sustainable without biodiversity.
Direct Values
Direct use values are for those goods that are ensured directly e.g. food and timber. Maintaining a wide range of components of biological diversity can be of direct use, especially in the fields of agriculture, medicine, and industry. Direct use can involve the use of forests, wetlands or other ecosystems for timber extraction, collection of non-timber products, fishing, etc. Direct use values could be due to extractive use where resources are extracted and consumed, or due to non-extractive use when there is no extraction or removal of the resource that is used (e.g. bird watching, scientific research in an ecosystem, etc.). However, the difference between extractive and non-extractive use is sometimes fine and hard to define.
Various types of direct use values are discussed below:
Extractive use
This includes direct use such as harvesting of wild plant species for use as food, fuel, fodder, fiber, shelter, or medicine and hunting animals for food or sport and fisheries. In terms of ecosystems, forests have been converted for agriculture and settlements, wetlands have been drained and reclaimed for various uses and coral reefs have been used for the extraction of corals for producing lime. Sometimes, in the case of species for which there are no substitutes (such as tigers, whales, and bluefin tuna), their prices increase exponentially as the resource becomes more and more scarce due to extraction. This in turn increases the incentives to extract such resources due to the high prices they fetch.
Thus, the price and demand keep increasing until the species in question is on the brink of extinction or finally becomes extinct. A case in point is the stock of western bluefin tuna, which has declined to less than 20% of its 1970 level, while its price has increased 20-fold. Ecosystems that contain an economic value in the form of minerals, wildlife, wood, and land have resulted in the final destruction ecosystem due to excessive extractive use. Extractive use can be further divided into consumptive use values and productive use values.
i) Consumptive use values
This means the non-market value of natural products such as firewood, game and fodder that do not pass through a market or product preparation. Indigenous people in developing countries still basically rely on wild and traditionally cultivated plant species to supply a wide range of their needs in terms of food, fiber, skins and feathers for clothing, fuelwood, wood for houses, medicinal plants, etc. The products of subsistence hunting and gathering go largely unmarketed, but although these resources have no financial value, as they are not sold and have no cash price, they do have economic value as they are of importance to society.
ii) Productive use values
This is the value of natural products harvested through commercial logging, agriculture or fisheries and medicines that generated products that are of commercial value. Logs still account for a significant proportion of world trade, although there is a trend towards value-added processing in the timber industry in developing countries. The export of timber in log form is increasingly being restricted, partly to retain wood within the country for further processing, and partly as a conservation measure. This also includes the commercial value of products prepared using biological resources as opposed to subsistence use when they are directly consumed. For example, taxol from the Pacific yew tree yields medicines that are used for treating cancer; enzymes from leech saliva is used to produce medicines that dissolve blood clots during micro-surgery.
Non-extractive use values
Some activities that make use of biological resources, without involving their extraction or destruction, denote non-extractive use of biological resources. This includes ecotourism, which involves a direct ‘transaction’ between people and biological resources and falls into the category of direct use values. However, as it does not involve destruction or a change in the resource – in this case, the natural areas visited by tourists – it can be classed as a non-extractive use. You will study ecotourism in detail in Block 3 of this course. Likewise, scientific research in natural areas, bird watching, and plant breeding are some other examples of non-extractive use of biodiversity.
Plants are an immediate incentive to sustainability since they are the main advantage of supplying food that can legally be harvested and spent. In terms of the fact that for a considerable period of time, the forest has produced wood that is used as fuel that is used for gas, fire, heating, as well as other mechanical processes. Considering the fact that traditional medicinal practices use plants, drugs and medications is an immediate incentive to biodiversity. In view of the fact that fuel is an immediate incentive for biodiversity for a substantial period of time.
Direct use values are for those goods that are ensured directly e.g. food and timber. Maintaining a wide range of components of biological diversity can be of direct use, especially in the fields of agriculture, medicine, and industry. Direct use can involve the use of forests, wetlands, or other ecosystems for timber extraction, collection of non-timber products, fishing, etc. Direct use values could be due to extractive use where resources are extracted and consumed, or due to non-extractive use when there is no extraction or removal of the resource that is used (e.g. bird watching, scientific research in an ecosystem).
Direct use value: Obtained through a removable product in nature (i.e. timber, fish, water). Indirect use value: Obtained through a non-removable product in nature (i.e. sunset, waterfall).
Indirect values
In view of the fact that multiple plants and animals are seen as holy and sacred and are cherished and respected in some rigid nations, cultural and traditional beliefs are an aberrant incentive for biodiversity. Indirect values would include ethical or moral value, existence value, ecological value, aesthetic value, cultural or spiritual value, option value, and scientific or educational value. Social values. The social value of biodiversity lies in the more and more use of resources by affluent societies.
Non-consumptive value
This is concerned more with nature’s services which also make vital contributions to the welfare of society and to ecological processes without which our planet would be uninhabitable. Biodiversity contributes to varied ecosystem services that include numerous invisible but essential services. These are the recycling of elements such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and other nutrients, decomposition, and waste dissipation, productivity and carbon storage, soil formation and fertility generation, reduction of soil salinity, water recharge, maintenance and raising of the water table, enhancement of water and air quality, etc.
Other indirect uses including pollination, gene flow, carbon sequestration, absorption and breakdown of pollutants (in land, air, and water), and maintaining soil fertility by soil microflora, are important services provided by biodiversity. Biodiversity also acts as a buffer against excessive variation in weather, climate, and other natural events (e.g. through flood control, storm protection, drought control, etc.) and many more that are outside the control of human beings.
Ethical principles are a backhanded encouragement to its biodiversity as it associated with biodiversity conservation where the moral dilemma of ‘all living things must be protected’ is enhanced.
Direct values include the ways in which biodiversity is used or consumed by man e.g. fishery and forestry products, as well as the ways in which it affects mankind through its ecological processes e.g. watershed protection or the role of vegetation in the carbon and water cycles.
Aesthetic values are an abnormal motivation for biodiversity as distinctive scenes at undisturbed spots are excellent to watch and provide options for leisure exercises that advance the eco-travel industry that further develops zoological nurseries, national parks, and structuring. Biodiversity encompasses the variety of plant and animal species in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Indirect use value is for those services that support the items that are consumed. Various indirect use values are as follows :
- Non-consumptive value
- Aesthetic value
- Cultural and religious values
- Ethical values
Examples of indirect values include services like pollination by bees, maintenance of water and oxygen cycles by plants, decomposition of dead material by bacteria and fungi, worshipping various animals and plants, sacred groves, the aesthetic beauty of fauna, and flora, etc.
Direct values of biodiversity include an actual economic impact that can be gained through the various life forms. For example, imagine that behind your house is a large tract of land—over one hundred acres. That land has a direct value because there are likely resources on it that you could use if you want or need to do so. You could cut down some of the trees and sell the wood for firewood or (if you have some incredible hardwoods) for construction or furniture making. If your land has a pond, it likely has fish that can be sold as food. If you are incredibly fortunate, you might learn that the land rests atop an underground oil reservoir. You'll be able to profit nicely from your land.
Indirect values of biodiversity reflect the intrinsic value of the land. Perhaps you enjoy the aesthetic value of the open land; it brings you peace to sit in the midst of it and not hear anyone around. Or perhaps the land reminds you to be more environmentally conscious and to value all ecosystems more. The land brings is now valuable to you in ways other than money; this is its indirect value.
Value of biodiversity: Biodiversity provides a variety of environmental services from its species and ecosystems that are essential at the global, regional, and local levels. Biodiversity is essential for preserving ecological processes, such as fixing and recycling of nutrients, soil formation, circulation and cleansing of air and water, global life support, maintaining the water balance within ecosystems, watershed protection, and maintaining stream and river flows throughout the year, erosion control and local flood reduction. Food, clothing, housing, energy, and medicines are all resources that are directly or indirectly linked to the biological variety present in the biosphere.
Consumptive use value: A straight consumptive use is the direct utilization of timber, food, fuelwood, and fodder by local communities. The diversity of organisms provides food, clothing, shelter, medicines, proteins, enzymes, papers, sports goods, musical instruments, beverages, narcotics, pets, zoo specimens, tourism, and raw material for business prospects.
Productive use value: This category comprises marketable goods. The biotechnologist uses bio-rich areas to prospect and search for potential genetic properties in plants or animals that can be used to develop better varieties of crops for use in farming and plantation programs or to develop better livestock. To the pharmacist, biological diversity is the raw material from which new drugs can be identified from plant or animal products. To industrialists, biodiversity is a rich storehouse from which to develop new products. For agricultural scientists, biodiversity is the basis for developing better crops. A variety of industries, like pharmaceuticals are highly dependent on identifying compounds of great economic value from the wide variety of wild species of plants located in undisturbed natural forests called “biological prospecting”.
Social values: Social value of biodiversity prospecting motivated habitat conservation in some areas, as traditional societies valued it as a resource. Ecosystem people value biodiversity as a part of their livelihood as well as through cultural and religious sentiments. A great variety of crops have been cultivated in traditional agricultural systems and permitted a wide range of products to be grown and marketed throughout the year and acted as insurance against the failure of one crop. In recent years, farmers have begun to receive economic incentives to grow cash crops for national or international markets, rather than to supply local needs. This has resulted in local food shortages, unemployment, landlessness, and increased vulnerability to drought and floods.
Ethical and moral values: Ethical values related to biodiversity conservation are based on the importance of protecting all forms of life against illegal activities like cloning of animals, smuggling of valuable biodiversity instances, bio-piracy, illicit trade, etc. In India, several generations have preserved nature through local traditions. However, immediate benefit rather than ethics appears to be modern man’s objective.
Aesthetic value: Biodiversity is a direct source of pleasure and aesthetic satisfaction – its contribution to the quality of life, outdoor recreation, and scenic enjoyment. They provide opportunities for recreational activities such as hiking, canoeing, bird watching, river rafting, rock climbing, trekking, parasailing, bird watching, and nature photography. The designing of thousands of new horticultural species, wildlife conservation, landscape luxury, national parks, zoological and botanical gardens, snake, crocodile, butterfly parks, and biotechnologically manipulated novel curios species added to the existing aesthetics.
Option value: Keeping future possibilities open for their use is called ‘option value’. It is impossible to predict which of our species or traditional varieties of crops and domestic animals will be of the greatest use in the future. Important ecosystem services and uses for plants and animals are still unknown and await discovery. It becomes valuable if targets are based on the policy of obtaining wealth from waste.
With the direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, most of our country’s greatest wealth is contained in natural forests, plains, mountains, wetlands, and marine habitats. These biological resources are the physical manifestation of the globe’s biological diversity, which simply stated is the variety and variability among living organisms and therefore the ecological complexes during which they occur. The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, Effective systems of management can make sure that biological resources not only survive but actually increase while they're getting used, thus providing the inspiration for sustainable development and for stable national economies.
But rather than conserving the rich resources of forest, wetland, and sea, current processes of development within the country are depleting many biological resources at such a rate that they're rendered essentially non-renewable.
Direct and Indirect use value of Biodiversity
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, It is often said that variety may be a spice of life. No intelligent investor confines his money to at least one or two shares. nobody can sit stably and comfortably on a chair with two legs, nobody remains fully healthy on a restricted diet. These facts are obvious, but the larger analogy that a varied base is significant for human existence fails to realize recognized. the variability of living things around us is one of the best wonders of life on earth.
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, this is often the rationale why our ancestors were ready to survive without industries, without the newest technologies, without guns, bulldozers then forth. This clearly shows that humanity has been hooked on wildlife ever since its existence on this planet. Most of our country’s greatest wealth is contained in natural forests, plains, mountains, wetlands, and marine habitats.
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, These biological resources are the physical manifestation of the globe’s biological diversity, which simply stated is the variety and variability among living organisms and therefore the ecological complexes during which they occur. Effective systems of management can make sure that biological resources not only survive but actually increase while they're getting used, thus providing the inspiration for sustainable development and for stable national economies.
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, But rather than conserving the rich resources of forest, wetland, and sea, current processes of development within the country are depleting many biological resources at such a rate that they're rendered essentially non-renewable. Conservation of living natural resources - plants, animals, and micro-organisms, and therefore the non-living elements of the environment on which they depend - is crucial for sustainable development.
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, Species, and their genetic materials promise to play an expanding role in development, and a strong economic rationale is emerging to bolster the moral, aesthetic, and scientific cases for preserving them. The genetic variability and germ-plasm material of species contribute to agriculture, medicine, and industry worth many billions of dollars per annum. If nations can make sure the survival of species, the planet can anticipate new drugs and medicines, and new staples for the industry.
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, Equally important are the vital life processes administered naturally, including stabilization of climate, protection of watersheds and soil, preservation of nurseries and breeding grounds, and so on. Conserving these processes can't be divorced from conserving the individual species within natural ecosystems. Species and natural ecosystems make many important contributions to human welfare. Yet these vital resources are seldom getting used in ways that are going to be ready to meet the growing pressures of future high demands for both goods and services that depend on these natural resources.
The direct and indirect use value of biodiversity, Many ecosystems that are rich biologically and promising in material benefits are severely threatened. Vast stocks of biological diversity are in peril of disappearing even as science is learning the way to exploit genetic variability through the advances in gene-splicing.