Incorporating diverse values of nature in decision-making—theory and practice

Abstract

Values play a significant role in decision-making, especially regarding nature. Decisions impact people and nature in complex ways and understanding which values are prioritised, and which are left out is an important task for improving the equity and effectiveness of decision-making. Based on work done for the IPBES Values Assessment, this paper develops a framework to support analyses of how decision-making influences nature as well as whose values get prioritised. The framework is used to analyse key areas of environmental policy: a) the present model for nature protection in market economies, b) the role of valuation in bringing nature values into decisions, and c) values embedded in environmental policy instruments, exemplified by protected areas for nature conservation and payments for ecosystem services. The analyses show that environmental policies have been established as mere additions to decision-making structures that foster economic expansion, which undermines a wide range of nature's values. Moreover, environmental policies themselves are also focused on a limited set of nature's diverse values. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bringing nature into decision-making’.

Bringing nature into decision-making

“…Vatn et al. [ 1 ] kick off the collection with an exploration of what values we assign to nature, and how these values play an important role in shaping decision-making. There are multiple values of nature but a narrow few have tended to dominate the incorporation of nature into decision-making, e.g.…”