Report Estimates Cost To Keep Biodiversity

The worldwide cost of protecting threatened species could be as high as $78.1 billion per year, an order of magnitude higher than current conservation funding, according to a new analysis in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1229803). The study is the first to look at the costs of maintaining biodiversity worldwide, and it includes financial costs for moving species away from extinction and conserving key sites required by the international Convention on Biological Diversity. The research was done by scientists at BirdLife International, a coalition of groups interested in protecting bird species, as well as several international universities and nonprofits. The study finds that reducing the extinction risk for for all threatened species would cost between $3.4 billion and $4.8 billion per year. The cost to protect important habitats for all species would be $76.1 billion per year, it finds.