Four propositions about how valuation intervenes in local environmental politics

Abstract

Environmental valuation provides a way of soliciting and organising information about how people relate to their environments. By canvassing a broad spectrum of human–nature relationships, valuation practice seeks to make environmental decision‐making more inclusive of diverse human concerns and aspirations. When valuation is undertaken in real‐world decision‐making settings, choices must be made about how to adapt valuation into context. Generic guidance illuminates choices of theory and method, as well as practical issues such as cost and complexity; however, little guidance exists on how to understand and respond to the political implications of valuation in places. To address this, we develop four propositions on how valuation intervenes into conflicted environmental decision‐making contexts, drawing on interviews with government officials and marine values‐holders from Aotearoa New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds. Valuation intervenes in politics by (i) vesting certain scales and actors with authority, (ii) aligning with or contesting existing regulatory categories, (iii) reallocating expertise about the environment and (iv) reproducing or reworking the uneven playing field of decision‐making. Understanding these implications can support valuation practitioners to situate their work within locally relevant contexts and objectives. These propositions provide a way of grasping the mechanisms through which valuation intervenes in local political struggles for environmental authority. Using these prompts, and developing others, can help valuation practitioners to ‘do good’ through seeking place‐based environmental justice and sustainability. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Environmental literacy scenarios lead to land degradation and changes in riparian zones: Implications for policy in China

“…We created various statements to assess the ELMs of local people and workers to propose approaches to support actions to mitigate the negative impacts of environmental illiteracy (details in Table 1). Most statements were written to elicit compliance by requesting the same information in several ways (Cook & Lewandowsky, 2016; Ikeda et al, 2021; Tadaki et al, 2021). Participants were informed that their anonymized responses would be used in a research project with their consent and that they may withdraw from the study at any time without incurring any consequences.…”

“…We created various statements to assess the ELMs of local people and workers to propose approaches to support actions to mitigate the negative impacts of environmental illiteracy (details in Table 1). Most statements were written to elicit compliance by requesting the same information in several ways (Cook & Lewandowsky, 2016;Ikeda et al, 2021;Tadaki et al, 2021).…”

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Barriers to coastal planning and policy use of environmental research in Aotearoa-New Zealand

“…We urgently need to develop the ability of legislators, planners and policy-and decision-makers to understand complexity and stop trying to find a "silver bullet" or a "one metric" solution. We also need to shift emphasis from shortterm economic imperatives to long-term environmental outcomes that support healthy ecosystems and also increase transparency in decision-making (Tadaki et al, 2021). The chances of good environmental outcomes for the next generation will increase with training to navigate different knowledge systems and undertake the joined-up thinking needed to transform relationships between people and nature.…”

Linking the taniwha and dragon: Māori primary exports into China and culturally aligned value chains

“…There has also been a growing recognition and emphasis on understanding of the role of culture and understanding of the specifics of cultural production and cultural industries (Pratt, 2008). The literature has addressed, for example, the questions of participation of actors in value chain activities (Islam, 2021) or the role of culture in decision-making (Tadaki et al, 2021). Yet the literature remains limited in the terms of holistic conceptualisation of the role of culture in Indigenous value chains.…”