Economically valuing nature resources to promote conservation: An empirical application to C hile's national system of protected areas

Starting from the framework proposed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ( MEA ) − which conceptually links nature's services with human wellbeing − we design and also apply empirically what we have called the total economic value calculating matrix ( TEVCM ) to estimate the monetary value of the annual flow of benefits provided by C hile's national system of protected areas ( NSPA ). The calculated economic value of this flow amounts to US $2.55 billion per year. We also analyse the relevance and usefulness of the methodology we propose and use the valuation exercise presented to extract some normative lessons regarding nature conservation in C hile as well as in developing countries rich in natural resource endowments.