Economic, Ecological, and Sociocultural Ecosystem Services Valuation: Contributions, Limits, and Theoretical Disputes
摘要
The concept of value is a philosophical cornerstone regarding economic, ecological, social and cultural parameters for decision making. Therefore, valuation is a scientific field where epistemological disputes are often fierce. The perspective of economic valuation of ecosystem services has dominated private and public rationality for environmental governance. This chapter presents the strengths, shortcomings and the main disputes among economic, ecological, and sociocultural ecosystem services valuation approaches. The main findings are that economic valuation is much less objective than it is supposed to be, and ethical and moral guidelines for governance are much less subjective than they are often understood.