Try nature, not tech, to fix economic woes -UNEP

The world is waking up to huge economic benefits of investing in nature, from forests to coral reefs, after one of the “great oversights” of the 20th century, the head of the U.N. Environment Programme said on Friday.

Achim Steiner told Reuters that governments had long placed too much faith in technology to fix problems such as global warming, water pollution or erosion, instead of looking to natural solutions.
“At the beginning of the 21st century we are being thrown back onto nature because you can’t fix all these problems with technology,” he said.

“The disproportion of investments in technological fixes versus investing in nature’s ready-made solutions, tried and tested over millions of years, is one of the great oversights of the 20th century,” he said.

A U.N.-backed study this week, for instance, indicated that tropical forests provide services worth an estimated $6,120 per hectare (2.47 acres) a year such as food, building materials, water purification or opportunities for tourism.

Reuters