Assistant Professor Maggie Winslow gave a
talk at the bi-annual International Society of Ecological Economics
conference in Reykjavik, Iceland in August. The title of her talk was
"Barriers to ESV Use in Municipal and Regional Decisions
Making in the U.S."
Here is the summary of her talk:
Recent advances in the practice of ecosystem services
valuation (ESV) have made relevant data and tools for assigning value to
ecosystem services increasingly accessible. Ostensibly, the primary purpose for
developing ESV techniques and results is to aid decision making related to
environmental resources. While there is extensive literature exploring the
importance of ESV, developing tools for valuation, and presenting the results
from valuation studies for a variety of resources, as well as excellent
collections of studies and tools for assisting decision-makers with using ESV
in decision making, the literature on the actual use of ESV in decision making
is thin, suggesting that ESV remains more academic than practical. This paper considers four types of
barriers to the inclusion of ESV in decision making in the United States for
regional and municipal decision making: lack of knowledge of ESV by
decision-makers; perceived inadequacy or inaccuracy of ESV; costs of conducting
ESV studies; and a regulatory framework that inhibits the use of ESV. It concludes with recommendations on
how these barriers might best be overcome and suggestions for future
research.