Rethinking ecosystem services to better address and navigate cultural values

By Kai Ma Chan, Terre Satterfield, J. Goldstein. 2012

1,548 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Ecosystem service approaches have become a prominent basis for planning and management. Cultural services and non-use values are included in all major typologies and present some of the most compelling reasons for conserving ecosystems, though many barriers exist to their explicit characterization. The values that conform least well to economic assumptions—variously lumped together with/as cultural services—have proven elusive in part because valuation is complicated by the properties of intangibility and incommensurability, which has in turn led to their exclusion from economic valuation. We argue that the effectiveness of the ecosystem services framework in decision-making is thwarted by (i) conflation of services, values, and benefits, and (ii) failure to appropriately treat diverse kinds of values. We address this challenge by (1) distinguishing eight dimensions of values, which have implications for appropriate valuation and decision-making; (2) demonstrating the interconnected nature of benefits and services, and so the ubiquity of intangible values; (3) discussing the implications of these propositions for ecosystem-services research; and (4) outlining briefly a research agenda to enable decision-making that is ecologically appropriate and socially just. Because many ecosystem services (co-)produce ‘cultural’ benefits, full characterization of services must address non-material values through methods from diverse social sciences.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b5a00351ed182bbeeb180a215ce7c6ca1aa77d65

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Citations in the corpus

The Relationship between Social Cohesion and Urban Green Space: An Avenue for Health Promotion (2019, background): “, aesthetic surroundings and outdoor recreation) [10,33,34] and are often underrated in health-related research [35,36].”
A Quantitative Review of Urban Ecosystem Service Assessments: Concepts, Models, and Implementation (2014, methodology): “They are mainly used for ES that are not valued within markets (Chan et al. 2012 for a theoretical explanation; Ambrey and Fleming 2011; Calvet-Mir et al. 2012 for case studies).”
Ecosystem service potentials, flows and demands-concepts for spatial localisation, indication and quantification (2014, background): “This reveals the full application potential of the ecosystem service framework (Chan et al. 2012; de Groot et al. 2010).”
From Multifunctionality to Multiple Ecosystem Services? A Conceptual Framework for Multifunctionality in Green Infrastructure Planning for Urban Areas (2014, background): “Accordingly, engaging stakeholders iteratively is recommended for the identification of crucial ES and values (Chan et al. 2012).”
The political ecology of ecosystem services (2015, positive): “For instance much writing on ESuncritically conflates values, benefits, and services (Chan et al. 2012).”
On the relation between ecosystem services, intrinsic value, existence value and economic valuation (2013, background): “(2009) add intrinsic value under cultural ecosystem services in their assessment of community values and threats (see also Burkhard et al., 2009; Chan et al., 2012), while according to Reyers et al.”
Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services (2017, background): “Cultural ecosystem services in forest ecosystems Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) are defined as ecosystems’ contributions to the nonmaterial benefits that arise from complex and dynamic relationships between ecosystems and humans (Chan et al. 2012; Fagerholm et al. 2012).”
Research, part of a Special Feature on Sustaining Ecosystem Services in Cultural Landscapes: Analysis and Management Options Exploring Futures of Ecosystem Services in Cultural Landscapes through Participatory Scenario Development in the Swabian Alb, Germany (2013, background): “At the same time, the participants found a purely economic concept of “services” to be problematic, as it touched only one of many of their links to nature (compare Chan et al. 2012).”
Trade-offs across value-domains in ecosystem services assessment. (2014, background): “A key challenge to be addressed s developing comprehensive assessment frameworks, in which iophysical, socio-cultural, and monetary values can be properly ntegrated (de Groot et al., 2002; Chan et al., 2012).”