Can We Put a Price Tag on Nature? Rethinking Approaches to Environmental Valuation
April 1, 2008 by Brian Butler and Emily Ryan | Filed under: Environmental Valuation and Accounting [1]
Environmental valuation typically involves finding a way to express the value of un-priced ecosystem goods and services in dollar units so that they may be incorporated in benefit cost analysis. However, monetization of such intangible assets is increasingly being questioned due to methodological, practical and ethical reasons. This article reflects on alternatives to monetary valuation that can help inform decision-makers and identify efficient resource allocation in environmental policy problems. Consideration is given to the applicability of multi-attributed indices of wellbeing used in healthcare economics over the past two decades. It is argued that similar non-monetary metrics of sustainability will play an increasing important role within the field of environmental management.
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Some interesting challenges presented by this article were the issue of a hypothetical market and a consistently defined metric. It seems like some scenarios should be developed to help provide a consistent framework for all stated preference models. These scenarios could present the question with several future models. To ensure standardized valuation, a detailed range of feelings/projections could be mapped to a many non-hypothetical markets to gauge the user’s background and predispositions.