How integrating 'socio-cultural values' into ecosystem services evaluations can give meaning to value indicators

Abstract

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.

An Analysis of the Worldwide Research on the Socio-Cultural Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services

“…Currently, the most accepted definition of ecosystem services is that provided by MEA [5], as the direct and indirect contributions of the ecosystems to human well-being. However, as indicated by Breyne et al [33], the understanding of benefit for human beings depends on the perception of each person at a given time and the value that he or she attributes to it. These authors coincide with the updated definition of Harrington et al [59], which refers to ecosystem services as "the benefits that humans recognize as obtained from ecosystems that support, directly or indirectly, their survival and quality of life".…”

“…These authors identify three principal concepts of value: (i) transcendental values (broadest central values including ethical principles or desired final states); (ii) contextual values (the value or importance of something); and (iii) the indicators of quantitative or qualitative value (the result of some form of valuation). According to Breyne et al [33], transcendental values influence contextual values, which, in turn, influence the choice of specific value indicators. For Ciftcioglu [61], social value refers to the shared social perspectives, the values and narratives obtained through social interactions, open dialogue and social learning.…”

“…According to the 2021 report of the United Nations on The Global Forest Goals, 18% of the forests have some kind of protected status [32]. However, many studies highlight the existence of imbalances between the current forest management strategies and the preferences of the general public [33].…”

Assessment of the Impact of Land Use Change on Spatial Differentiation of Landscape and Ecosystem Service Values in the Case of Study the Pearl River Delta in China

“…This area was at the forefront of China's reform and opening up and has been declared a national optimized development zone [29]. In 2017, the total GDP was 7.58 × 10 12 Chinese Yuan (CNY), and the urbanization level was 85.29%, much higher than the national urbanization level of 59.58%. In 2017, the scale of built-up land in the PRD reached 7666.96 km 2 , accounting for 12.62% of the total land use.…”

“…Costanza et al proposed using the ecosystem's economic value per unit area to assess ecosystem service value (ESV) [11]. The value evaluation method is simple to operate, and the results are intuitive and clear [12][13][14]. Xie et al revised Costanza's evaluation method of global ecosystem service function value and formulated a value table per unit area for different terrestrial ecosystems adapted to China's national conditions [15].…”