The study on the Value of Biodiversity provides evidence that the loss of biodiversity and related ecosystem services has resulted in several socio-economic costs, including financial losses. The insights of this study encourage and assist policy and decision-makers to take ecosystem services into consideration in decision making processes. The results contributed to the Commission’s upcoming Communication on ‘Halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010 – and beyond’. The outcomes were also presented to the network of economists from the 25 Member States’ Ministries of the Environment and Ministries of Finance (ENVECO) in April 2006.