Where are Cultural and Social in Ecosystem Services? A Framework for Constructive Engagement

TLDR

Ecosystem services are increasingly used to guide decisions, yet most studies focus on material contributions, leaving cultural and nonmaterial values underrepresented because no common framework exists to elicit and integrate them. The authors aim to create a framework that addresses the monetary inadequacy of nonmaterial values, the difficulty of linking socio‑ecological changes to cultural benefits, and the multi‑service nature of cultural benefits. They propose a framework that integrates nonmaterial values, clarifies causal links between system changes and cultural benefits, and accounts for cultural benefits across multiple services. While not a cure‑all, the framework can enable more comprehensive and socially acceptable integration of ecosystem service information into planning and management.

Abstract

A focus on ecosystem services (ES) is seen as a means for improving decisionmaking. In the research to date, the valuation of the material contributions of ecosystems to human well-being has been emphasized, with less attention to important cultural ES and nonmaterial values. This gap persists because there is no commonly accepted framework for eliciting less tangible values, characterizing their changes, and including them alongside other services in decisionmaking. Here, we develop such a framework for ES research and practice, addressing three challenges: (1) Nonmaterial values are ill suited to characterization using monetary methods; (2) it is difficult to unequivocally link particular changes in socioecological systems to particular changes in cultural benefits; and (3) cultural benefits are associated with many services, not just cultural ES. There is no magic bullet, but our framework may facilitate fuller and more socially acceptable integrations of ES information into planning and management.