A new report in Nature Communications takes a different approach to attaching value to native bees:

> Benefits of biodiversity should therefore not be used as the sole rationale for biodiversity conservation as, for example, is currently done in the new strategy of the Convention on Biological Diversity and in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Moral arguments remain pivotal to supporting conservation of the larger portion of biodiversity including threatened species that currently contribute little to ecosystem service delivery. Such arguments are powerful and define many human actions, from taking care of the elderly to preserving historical buildings or art. Ecologists and conservationists need to make these distinctions clear if we expect policy makers or land owners to defend species with no clearly defined economic value to humans.

They are saying that placing an economic value on nature may be a good way to "sell it" but it misses the point. Nature needs to be valued for its own sake, as something not man-created; something irreplaceable, and miraculous. Pretty interesting stuff from the scientific community.

see:
Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 6:7414 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8414 |www.nature.com/naturecommunications

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