10.9. Potschin

Keynote Presentations from the 4th ALTER-Net Summer School, Peyresq 5 - 17 September 2009

Speaker: Marion Potschin

Marion.Potschin -at- Nottingham.ac.uk

University of Nottingham, Centre for Environmental Management, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/CEM/

Title of the talk: Place-based approaches to the assessment of ecosystem services (pdf: 11MB)

Summary of the talk and discussion by Caspar Verwer (pdf)

Abstract

Decision makers are increasingly beginning to ask questions about ecosystem services, how to assess their status and what the future might hold in terms of human well-being. Unfortunately although the science is developing rapidly, assessment methodologies are still in their infancy and often more reflect academic concerns rather than those of the policy maker or manager. For example, many recent attempts to map ecosystem services look at the problem from the supply side, and deal more the capacity of ecosystems to provide services rather than the demand for them. Demand-side issues are often more difficult to deal with, because information about the requirements of beneficiaries (particularly for pubic goods) is lacking.

In this session we will look at the value of place-based approaches to assessment, and suggest that it is a framework within which issues of multiple scales can be addressed along with questions about supply and demand. Since the importance that people assign to ecosystem services is often context specific, assessment approaches based around locality also provides a framework in which valuation can be undertaken. Finally, place-based approaches have the advantage that they enable the problem of managing bundles of services to be looked at, and the information used to support the kinds of decision that have to be made given the growing need for strategic planning.

Recommended background literature on this presentation:

• Graham S (1998) The end of geography or the explosion of place? Conceptualizing space, place and information technology. Progress in Human Geography 22:165-185. http://phg.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/165
• de Chazal J, Quétier F, Lavorel S, Van Doorn A (2008) Including multiple differing stakeholder values into vulnerability assessments of socio-ecological systems. Global Environmental Change 18:508-520, doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.04.005
• Raymond CM, Bryan BA, MacDonald DH, Cast A, Strathearn S, Grandgirard A, Kalivas T (2009) Mapping community values for natural capital and ecosystem services. Ecological Economics 68:1301-1315, doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.12.006