Paying for What Lasts
Thirty years of European ecosystem funding versus Australia's Big-Ag wager
Stand in an alpine meadow above Salzburg in July and you are surrounded by 50 or 60 plant species in a single hectare. Orchids, arnica, eyebright, wild thyme. The farmer who manages that meadow cuts it once a year — late, after the wildflowers set seed — hauls the hay down by hand because the slope is too steep for machinery, and receives a payment from the Austrian government for doing exactly that. Not as charity. As compensation for a service the rest of society benefits from but rarely pays for directly: a functioning, species-rich landscape that holds water in the soil, holds carbon in the vegetation, holds tourists in the valley, and holds genetic diversity in the bank for everything that comes after us.
Read More