How do we value nature?

Michael Gross, reporting in the scientific journal Current Biology has a really interesting article on valuing nature.  Much of the article is devoted to reporting on a UN Environmental Program study called The Economics of the Environment and Biodiversity and a recent meeting at Oxford of the World Forum for Enterprise and the Environment.  While NGOs, businesses, and academics want to develop ways to estimate the value of nature, there are implementation problems. Among several interesting points was the one that it's really difficult to value the oceans' bounty and it's even more difficult to conserve oceanic biodiversity.  It's likely, thus, that this particular common is likely to continue to be exploited.