"A key component of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is continued global biodiversity loss and the implications of this for human well being. Biodiversity is a complex resource that demands a multi-disciplinary ecological and economic approach. Solutions to biodiversity loss will come both from better biological models and from a better understanding of the socio-economic factors that benefit from biodiversity, negatively impact its losses and can be directed to sustainable use by appropriate public policies. The continued biodiversity loss of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region is seen as one of the world’s principal environmental problems, with a regional approach to biodiversity yet to be adopted. The role of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem goods and services to the stakeholders of the LAC, the integration of biodiversity into the region’s peculiar economic structures, the development of economic incentives and payment mechanisms towards regional biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and benefit-sharing, and the production of a generic template for integrated ecological-economic stakeholder-based biodiversity research in the region are the primary objectives of this proposal. These objectives will be achieved through the execution of 5 Modules and 12 associated Work Packages over a 24 month period. Module 1 develops the conceptual framework for the ecological-economic BIOLAC model. Module 2 applies this framework to a selected regional case study. Module 3 calculates the welfare losses at stakeholder levels of biodiversity loss. Module 4 develops payment mechanisms for ecosystem services at a regional level. Module 5 develops a generic framework for the application of the BIOLAC model to other case studies of the region. Each Work Package is sanctioned by deliverables that mark the project’s progress. Dissemination of the project’s methods and results to regional stakeholders and decision-makers is the critical, final deliverable."