Revisiting Ecosystem Services: Assessment and Valuation as Starting Points for Environmental Politics

Abstract

Abstract:The paradigm of ecosystem services (ES) and the methods of monetary valuation have become boundary objects, spanning disciplines and earning particular purchase in policy circles. However, the notion of ES and ES valuation have also been subjected to multiple critiques, ranging from their varying precision to the potential for neoliberalization of nature. This paper does not attempt to refute such critiques but rather revisits the potentials of the ES paradigm and the specific method of benefit transfer valuation for their utility as a form of environmental politics and sustainability practice. We find they have particular relevance in contexts where "data" are not readily available or are not legible to policy makers as well as where the imperative of "development" remains ideological. We argue for ES assessment and, specifically, rapid ES valuation as a first-pass tactic to inform evaluation of potentially environmentally degrading projects or environmental management. We demonstrate this using a simple benefit transfer analysis to offer an initial evaluation of (wet) landscape ES in a lightly touched estuary in Karnataka, India, where a state-backed proposal to develop an industrial shipping port is gathering steam. While we recognize and do not categorically reject critiques of the ES paradigm, we nonetheless argue for valuation as a starting point for politics that highlight and make visible ES benefits and users implicated by "development" and other kinds of environmental change.

Estimation of Rural Households’ Willingness to Accept Two PES Programs and Their Service Valuation in the Miyun Reservoir Catchment, China

“…A number of non-market valuation methods, including Revealed Preference (RP) and State Preference (SP) methods, have been developed [9,13]. Studies using these non-market valuation methods have assessed global and regional ES and their contribution to human well-being [1,7,[14][15][16][17]. Compared to the RP methods (e.g., production-oriented valuation, replace cost method, hedonic prices method), the SP methods use hypothetical scenarios involving ES to elicit individuals' responses to ES improvements and observe their behavior of interest [9,18].…”

Valuing Our National Parks: An Ecological Economics Perspective

“…We present these numbers as a reasonable starting place to discuss a new allocation of resources in which we preserve the ability of our environment to support our society, economy, and individual wellbeing. We regard plausible valuation of ecosystem services as a good starting point for environmental politics [31] and suggest that discussions of levels of funding for our national parks is fundamentally in the domain of environmental politics and the institutional changes suggested are compatible with ideas expressed in 'The Green New Deal'.…”

“…A growing literature on the negative consequences of inequality [34,35] and social movements (e.g., Occupy Wall Street, The Women's March, Black Lives Matter) suggests we are also failing to meet the standard of the second principle. The third principle of optimal allocation is working in a limited way through the dominant economic paradigm; however, it also fails because it is not subservient to the first two principles and results in inadequate resource valuation, misallocation, short-termism, and unacceptable levels of inequality and poverty [5,31]. Recognizing the ecosystem service value of our national parks and increasing the budget of the NPS to support and maintain the parks and monuments is a small step we could make towards living within the guiding principles of ecological economics.…”

Valuing Our National Parks: An Ecological Economics Perspective

“…We present these numbers as a reasonable starting place to discuss a new allocation of resources in which we preserve the ability of our environment to support our society, economy, and individual wellbeing. We regard plausible valuation of ecosystem services as a good starting point for environmental politics [25] and suggest that discussions of levels of funding for our national parks is fundamentally in the domain of environmental politics.…”