Social valuation of ecosystem services and public policy alternatives is one of the greatest challenges facing ecological economists today. Frameworks for valuing nature increasingly include shared/social values as a distinct category of values. However, the nature of shared/social values, as well as their relationship to other values, has not yet been clearly established and empirical evidence about the importance of shared/social values for valuation of ecosystem services is lacking. To help address these theoretical and empirical limitations, this paper outlines a framework of shared/social values across five dimensions: value concept, provider, intention, scale, and elicitation process. Along these dimensions we identify seven main, non-mutually exclusive types of shared values: transcendental, cultural/societal, communal, group, deliberated and other-regarding values, and value to society. Using a case study of a recent controversial policy on forest ownership in England, we conceptualise the dynamic interplay between shared/social and individual values. The way in which social value is assessed in neoclassical economics is discussed and critiqued, followed by consideration of the relation between shared/social values and Total Economic Value, and a review of deliberative and non-monetary methods for assessing shared/social values. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of shared/social values for decision-making

The substantial importance of cultural benefits as a source of human well-being is increasingly recognised in society-environment interactions. The integration of cultural ecosystem services (CES) into the ecosystem services framework remains a challenge due to the difficulties associated with defining, articulating and measuring CES. We operationalise a novel framework developed by the UK National Ecosystem Assessment that identifies CES as the interactions between environmental spaces (i.e. physical localities or landscapes), and the activities that occur there. We evaluate the benefits of the CES provided by 151 UK marine sites to recreational sea anglers and divers, using subjective well-being indicators. Factor analysis of an online questionnaire with 1220 participants revealed multiple CES benefits that contribute to human wellbeing e.g. including ‘engagement with nature’, ‘place identity’ and ‘therapeutic value’. In addition to regional differences, we also found that biophysical attributes of sites, such as the presence of charismatic species and species diversity, were positively associated with provision of CES benefits. The study provides evidence that could be used to inform designation of protected areas. The indicators used in the study may also be adapted for use across a range of marine and terrestrial spaces for improved integration of CES in environmental decision-making

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Basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus have undergone widespread historic exploitation in the northeast Atlantic and are of conservation concern. A greater knowledge of their spatial and temporal habitat use is required to better inform subsequent monitoring and management strategies. Techniques such as light-based geolocation have provided great insights into individual movements, but currently available data do not permit extrapolation to the population level. Public recording schemes may, however, help to fill shortfalls in data gathering, especially when analysed in conjunction with data from these other techniques. We analysed 11 781 records (from 1988 to 2008) from 2 public recording databases operating in the UK. We describe 3 sightings hotspots: western Scotland, Isle of Man and southwest England, and highlight the marked seasonality of basking shark sightings, which were at their greatest during the northeast Atlantic summer (June to August). We further highlight a significant correlation between the duration of the sightings season in each year and the North Atlantic Oscillation, an atmosphere−ocean climate oscillation that has been linked to forcing of marine ecosystems. We augment patterns from public sightings records with effort-related data collected by boat-based transects at 2 regional sightings hotspots (western Scotland and southwest England). Analysis of reported body size data indicated that the annual proportion of small sharks (< 4 m length) sighted by the public decreased, the proportion of medium-sized sharks sighted (4−6 m) increased, and the proportion of large sharks sighted (> 6 m) remained constant. These patterns may be indicative of a population recovery following systematic harvesting in the 20th century. KEY WORDS: Basking shark · Cetorhinus maximus · Public sightings · Citizen-science · Marine vertebrates · ConservationResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Mar Ecol Prog Ser 459: 121-134, 2012 (see Hammerschlag et al. 2011 andGodley et al. 2008 for examples of taxon-specific reviews), the method can only provide information at the level of the individual, and scaling observed behaviours to infer population level insights is complex. However, with comprehensive coverage and large sample sizes (Hawkes et al. 2011), or by synthesizing data from multiple taxa (Burger & Shaffer 2008, Block et al. 2011, such insights can be gained.More knowledge, but at a coarse scale (spatial and temporal), on the abundance, distribution and be haviour of large marine vertebrates can be obtained using dedicated in situ census techniques, such as distance surveying (Buckland et al. 2001), which can provide wide spatial scale 'snap-shots' of distribution and abundance and help highlight regions of relative importance, e.g. the SCANS II project for small ceta ceans (Hammond 2006). These types of approaches can be expensive and, in general, monitoring programmes are of comparatively short durations when compared to the multi-decadal lifespans of long-lived...

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