Papua New Guinea holds about seven percent of the world's biodiversity and the United Nations Development Programme wants this reflected in its economy.
The UNDP is working with Queensland's James Cook University to determine how an economic value can be put on nature.
New Britain coast, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Alex Smith
The PNG resident representative for the UNDP, Dirk Wagener, said what was often forgotten was that ecosystems generated by the environment produce many services for people.
"Such as food, water, timber, but also clean air - the regulator of climate. But often those services are undervalued. And one of the first steps to actually bringing eco-system services into your overall balance sheet is to actually value them." he said.
Wagener said if a precise measure was placed on food, water, timber, clean air - the environment - this can be factored into government decision-making.
He said at the moment such elements were treated like a free good.
According to him, it's not about charging people for air, per se, but what they are arguing for is taking a long term view on the assets of the country.
Papua New Guinea. Photo: DOZIER Marc / hemis.fr
"You can go ahead and you can exploit your natural resources that you physically see but you have to start taking into your longterm development those services which you are actually losing and those assets and those economic values you are actually losing.
"So unless you give a value to these eco-system services you won't be able to do so, " Wagener said.
He said such an assessment of the value of PNG biodiversity could eventually made it very wealthy.
Wagener said the agency has adjusted its Human Development Report to include resource extraction per capita, and carbon emissions per capita.
"Human development is not just how old you get and how much you earn and how healthy you are, human development is also how sustainably you work with your natural environment - whether you exploit it or whether you take a long term to it," he said.
"And yes Papua New Guinea, if you look into its natural capital, its natural resource, it is actually one of the richest countries in the world."
Much of Papua New Guinea is covered in forest. Photo: Forest Trends