Researchers report a measure of the monetary value of ecosystem contributions to the economy, called Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP), which could be used to guide investments in ecosystem conservation; GEP calculations for China's Qinghai Province, the source of three major rivers, revealed that more than half of GEP came from ecosystem services related to water supply, that GEP exceeded Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year 2000, and that GEP was ¾ as large as GDP in 2015.
Article #19-11439: "Using gross ecosystem product (GEP) to value nature in decision making," by Zhiyun Ouyang et al.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences