The Latin American and Caribbean region is a biodiversity superpower. It has one of the greatest endowments of natural capital in the world, which is a source of economic growth and has the potential to become the world leader in offering the services its ecosystems and biodiversity provide and in return receive new benefits from this conservation and sustainable management.

The new policies recommended in this brief promise to transform the traditional model of development—one that often disregards environmental costs—into a new paradigm that recognises the value of services provided by healthy, fully functioning ecosystems.