This book bridges the gap between economic and ecological theory and
practice. Its main focus is on how the principles of the Austrian School
of economics could improve the validity of Ecosystem Services.
The concept of 'Ecosystem Services' is a relatively recent innovation in
environmental thought. The current system is dependent upon mainstream
economic theory, in which monetary and fiscal policy controls the
prevailing health of the economy. The dependence on this approach to
finance, Muddiman argues, limits the potential of ecosystem services and
exacerbates the effects of the existing flawed economic model.
The book highlights the links between ecological and economic
methodologies and concepts and outlines how the principles of Austrian
Economic theory could provide better environmental outcomes. It then
goes on to formulate approaches to ecosystem services which could act as
drivers towards a new biodiversity-based economic framework built around
distributed ledger technology, or 'blockchain'. The key distinction of
this book is its consideration of ecosystem services as a function of
the current economic system. Using this as a starting point it
investigates how an alternative economic model would achieve the
integration of environmental considerations into economic decision
making.