The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster has helped the United Nations to begin putting a price on the world's plant and animal species, which are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate.

Pricing such "environmental goods" is expected to encourage economists and governments to factor them into calculations about economic wellbeing. After the tsunamis, aid organisations discovered that the destruction of mangrove swamps and coral reefs had added to the damage done by the enormous waves, by removing some of the protection against the impact of water.