A study on protection of natural capital and assessment of economic and environmental linkages

Natural capital is of concern to all. Natural Capital is the environmental stock or resources of Earth that provide goods, flows and ecological services required to support life. This paper deals with the problems related to the protection of natural capital, the inability of economics to appropriately model and price both market and non-market environmental resources; lack of willingness to pay; lack of knowledge about minimum levels or time spans required for resources to replenish or renew; lack of knowledge regarding the interaction and dependences between resources and their true value, usefulness or necessity; poor management of trans-boundary resources; and inequalities between developed and developing nations. It also bring into focus the case study of Western Ghats. The latter part of the paper deals with the environmental and ecological linkages.