Gaining Ground: Wetlands, Hurricanes, and the Economy: The Value of Restoring the Mississippi River Delta

摘要

Mississippi River Delta ecosystems provide economically valuable services, including hurricane storm protection, water supply, climate stability, food, furs, waste treatment, wildlife habitat, recreation, and other benefits. This flow of annual benefits provides a vast amount of value to people across time. A natural capital asset value can be established from these annual benefits. The present value of the benefits from these ecosystem goods and services provided by the Mississippi Delta, analogous to an asset value, is worth at least $330 billion to $1.3 trillion.