What we lose when we reduce nature to numbers

This morning I stopped under a cherry tree while on my way to the ITF office in Oxford. The tree was in full blossom – a profusion of pink that lifts the soul.

I have been reading about the value that is placed on cherry trees and cherry blossom in Japanese culture – the celebration of spring, the signification of the transience and beauty of life, but also of its permanence in the annual return of spring and the abundance of blossom.

I have also been looking at a very different way of valuing nature. This involves the buying and selling of carbon offsets for tree planting and the associated flaws and risks of the carbon market.

It can seem that we miss so much of the beauty, wonder and true value of trees when we reduce them down to numbers and tradeable assets.

At ITF, we know the value that trees play in regulating ecosystems, storing carbon and nurturing biodiversity. We know that detailed scientific research is needed and that it can be helpful to quantify the benefits that nature provides to humankind. Yet there is a risk that the economist’s rationality and the desire to quantify and commoditise nature, blinds us to the simple glory of the living world and the majesty of trees.

Measuring the value of the natural world on an abacus can mean we miss the understanding of the complex web of living systems of which we are a part. Perhaps it’s a case of not seeing the cherry tree for the wood.