Valuing Nature Network
Aims and objectives
Valuing Nature Network mission
The Valuing Nature Network's overall mission is to support interdisciplinary partnerships to scope, develop and promote research capacity in the valuation of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural resources and facilitate the integration of such approaches in policy and practice in the public and private sectors.
Valuing Nature Network aims
The two main aims of the network are to:
- Articulate the challenge of valuing the contribution that the stock of natural capital and the flow of ecosystem services make to human well-being, and developing meaningful methods of valuation.
- Identify and develop the underpinning socio-ecological system knowledge that will enable robust monetary and non-monetary valuation to be achieved.
In order to address these aims a number of challenges will be tackled under the following associated themes:
Developing a trans-disciplinary framework for the valuation of stocks of natural capital and flows of ecosystem services.
This will be achieved by bringing together natural and social scientists to develop integrated methods for ecosystem valuation (both monetary and non-monetary) and to examine approaches for ensuring the sustainability of stocks of natural resources and the flow of ecosystem services from them.
Characterising the socio-ecological system knowledge required to properly capture the value of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural resources.
Activities addressing this theme will seek to evaluate measurements of ecosystem change which recognise the poor knowledge base of some ecosystem processes and the uncertainty created by non-linear system dynamics, in relation to the valuation of both natural resource stocks and ecosystem service flow.
Challenges
- How can the complexity of socio-ecological systems be incorporated into valuations of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural resource use?
- How can stock sustainability be incorporated within valuations of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural resource use?
- How can issues of scale be incorporated within valuations of biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural resource use?
- How do we integrate information on values obtained from the natural sciences, economics and other social sciences into governance and so improve decision making and how can such improved decisions be implemented effectively?