Valuing Biodiversity

I've been banging on a bit about accounting for externalities and now here's an example writ large. The World Bank has an initiative aimed at accounting for the "value of biodiversity" to be integrated into countries' development and poverty reduction strategies. Sounds to me like something that could be somewhat of a slow burner. Apparently there's a lot of arguing about whether (and how) this shold be integrated into national accounts.

Of course, this will not fully monetise the value of biodiversity - and is unlikely to do anything until a tax/incentive/obligation scheme hits companies' P&L accounts.