Linking ecosystem services and human-values theory

Abstract

Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia, email christina.c.hicks@gmail.com Paper submitted April 30, 2014; revised manuscript accepted March 3, 2015.

Making sense of environmental values: a typology of concepts

“…In environmental management, this values-as-priorities concept finds expression in attempts to identify patterns of priorities within "the public" or affected communities, and consideration of what this means for representative or inclusive decisionmaking (Dietz et al 2005, Ives and Kendal 2014, Hicks et al 2015, Wallace et al 2016. Often this takes the form of structured surveys, where participants are provided with a list of generic "value items" (i.e., individual priorities, such as doing well in one's career, spending time with family, protecting nature) and are asked to rate the importance of each item to them personally (see Schwartz 1992).…”

“…In addition, values-as-priorities can be used to explain the motivations behind human behavior, and specifically proenvironmental (or anti-environmental) behaviors. For example, scholars and practitioners may analyze the distributions of values-as-priorities to help develop and promote proenvironmental actions, by appealing to those individual priorities that are most likely to motivate action among target groups (Hicks et al 2015, Jones et al 2016). …”

“…One is that the value items used in generic surveys are often unrelated or only obliquely related to specific environmental management problems. For example, the 58 survey items used by Hicks et al (2015) cover a range of topics from family to career to community, and while the survey has been tested and refined in the psychological literature, the 58 items are not necessarily "fit for purpose" for environmental management. It is assumed that such surveys capture all or the most relevant core values driving individuals' interests and behavior.…”

“…In terms of scale, analysts often seek statistically representative samples through surveys, whether as mail-out surveys or a large number of structured interviews (e.g., Dietz et al 2005, Corner et al 2014, Hicks et al 2015. While the sample size can be modest in the case of small communities (Vugteveen et al 2010, Seymour et al 2011, representativeness can be attained insofar as participation reflects wider community composition, even if statistical significance may not be possible .…”

“…Research on environmental values can take many forms. Studies might seek to document people's personal priorities (or human values [see Hicks et al 2015]), with an aim of considering how these priorities and preferences vary across space and social groups. Alternatively, ecological and social values could be treated as residing "out there" in the environment, able to be mapped and modeled across a landscape by experts, with an aim of identifying those places and processes of strategic significance for planning and conservation goals (Boon andFreeman 2009, Bryan et al 2010).…”