As an attempt to clarify the meaning of 'values' within ecosystem services (ES) assessments, this paper proposes the integration and fine-tuning of the concept of 'socio-cultural values' within the ES assessment framework. Firstly, it makes a conceptual clarification between biophysical, social or monetary value indicators describing the performance of a service, and socio-cultural values reflecting opinions on the importance of a (set of) service (s). Secondly, it provides a practical application to illustrate how to interpret 'social value indicators' through their interactions with 'socio-cultural values'. An adequate use of these 'socio-cultural values' combined with subjective social value indicators' makes it possible to take the opinion of a wide range of actors into account and to give meaning to their expressed preferences instead of blindfolding on caricaturized profiles. The case study in this paper deals with the Ardennes forests (Belgium). Wider public preferences for different structural forest characteristics (as performance-oriented ES value indicators) actually relate to different 'socio-cultural values'. The study results reveal a mismatch between current forest management strategies and wider public preferences. This paper clearly demonstrates the potential of 'socio-cultural values' to improve legitimacy and to foster consensus-building of decision-making in natural resource management.

Wildlife comebacks are often subject to public debate. Recurring controversies dominate the discussion, while the frequent use of stereotypes to describe concerned actors reinforces polarizations. This is not any different for the return of the wolf. In order to assist in the interpretation of the human dimensions of the wolf debate, we propose the use of the socio-cultural (SC) value concept. This concept distinguishes between the performance and importance of ecosystem services and allows to give meaning to indicators without blindfolding on caricaturized profiles. The methodology is applied to the case study of the Ardennes (southern Belgium), where the wolf has recently made its comeback. An online survey, based on main points of controversy in human-wildlife debates, was presented to a large sample (N = 1461) of local residents and (potential) visitors, representative for age classes and gender. The answer options were modeled as a function of socio-demographic and profile variables, as well as SC value variables. Overall, a positive positioning was observed. The example of the hunter profile is used to demonstrate how SC values address heterogeneity within and overlap of profiles between groups. Our results show that the use of SC values, complementary to the sole use of standard profile variables, is an interesting tool to overcome preconceptions and to understand underlying reasons behind peoples stated position on points of controversy. These insights can, among others, lead to question the legitimacy of existing discourses and to transparency in terms of which values are accounted for by an actual or proposed management.

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