Abstract
To improve environmental management, there is a growing demand from policy-makers to quantify the non-market values of ecosystem services. The standard approach of economists is to monetize ecosystem benefits through non-market valuation where individual values are captured. The validity of this approach has been challenged, claiming it is less suitable in situations e.g. involving a plurality of ethical issues and uncertainty. Since ecosystem services have collective meaning, so called ?shared values? have been stressed, i.e. values individuals hold for ecosystems as citizens rather than consumers. Participatory deliberative techniques that bring together quantitative and qualitative values have been stressed, but further research is needed. We will test five different monetary and non-monetary valuation methods to assess synergies and trade-offs so as to distinguish which values are identifiable and not, and which methods are suitable respectively, under different time horizons and under different levels of uncertainty. To illustrate the future development of factors influencing ecosystem services one conventional scenario of non-market valuation and two explorative scenarios will be developed, in a marine case study. The outcome of the different approaches will be analyzed with respect to shared and individual values. The aim is to improve the framework for eliciting ecosystem values so that decision support better reflect the values at stake in ecosystem management.
Sweden