GEDAi and Vultures!

Dr A. Santangeli from the GEDA comments on a new study about the consequences of the decline of vultures in India and its cost in terms of human lifes and monetary damages. Here   

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"To calculate monetary damages, the team relied on previous research that calculated the economic value of what Indian society is willing to spend to save one life at roughly $665,000 a person. That put the total economic damages from the loss of vulture populations at $69.4 billion a year from 2000 to 2005.

The numbers themselves aren’t surprising, says Andrea Santangeli, a conservation scientist at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies who wasn’t involved with the research. He and others have sounded the alarm on biodiversity loss for decades. But the new, dramatic stats could help convince lawmakers to act, he says. “If you give them flashy figures, it’s probably easier to push forward policy and conservation measures." by Vivian La (Science News 15/07/2024)