9 August 2017

Sustainable management and development of natural resources routinely includes economic valuation of the benefits that individuals gain from nature. But what about the more complex ways that societies as a whole benefit from ecosystem services?

Hub Project Leader Professor Natalie Stoeckl from James Cook University says that we need to have better tools to value the benefits that communities get from intact ecosystems so that we can make better natural resource management decisions.

“We are very good at valuing the benefits that individuals gain from ecosystems, such as commercial fisheries,” Professor Stoeckl explains.

“What we need to improve is how we value the more complex ways that societies benefit from nature.”

“For example, the ceremonies, stories and social norms around traditional Indigenous fisheries provide many socio-cultural benefits that need to be included in any valuation of this resource. ”

This Hub research has been published in Ecological Economics. Read more about the two projects contributing to this research here and here, or contact project leader Prof Natalie Stoeckl for more information.