A review of marine genetic resource valuations

Marine biotechnology is a rapidly growing sector of the ocean economy, but efforts to assess its value, and that of the genetic resources that enable it, remain contentious. Through a comprehensive literature review, we identified 67 distinct valuations of marine genetic resources. We analysed these using the IPBES Values Assessment typology and found a predominance of behaviour-based valuations using economic value indicators to assess monetary benefits from marine drug discovery.