Barbara Muraca

Abstract Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on.

Introduction Over ten years ago, Johan Rockström and colleagues published a seminal work on nine “planetary boundaries,” which rapidly became a crucial reference in the sustainability literature (Rockström et al. 2009a, 2009b). Alongside the narrative of the Great Acceleration (Steffen et al. 2004) and the concept of the Anthropocene (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000), the concept of planetary boundaries changed the scientific, as well as the popular, vocabulary on environmental issues. Rockström et al.

As the coronavirus pandemic grows, it brings a secondary, economic disaster—unemployment, small business closings, local government budget shortfalls. Given the way our economy is structured, widespread job losses and plummeting consumer demand trigger a whole lot of suffering.