In short: Environmental valuation, which is at the heart of environmental management, shapes the roles of and relations between actors associated with nature parks. Currently, international environmental conservation institutes make use of different valuation tools and practices for the management of their parks. The NatUval project will compare different valuation methods at Unesco and the IUCN. The aim is to (1) conceptualise how values are attached to ecosystems and landscapes in these institutes and (2) develop a first typology of environmental valuation practices in order to (3) outline a systematic, long-term empirical research on the performativity of those valuation practices and the consequences for environmental management. The results will help to understand the impact of different forms of environmental valuation. The lessons learned from these case studies will be used to develop a typology of valuation tools to assist practitioners in their environmental management work.
The aim of NatUval was to develop empirically grounded knowledge on how environmental valuation devices shape the roles of, and relations between, the human and non-human actors associated with nature parks. I studied the scientific, practical and political challenges associated with implementing environmental valuation devices. The project was structured in 5 Specific Objectives (SO), which are explained below. For each of these objectives, several actions have been carried out (as laid out in the work packages (WP) under section 1.2).
- SO1: To develop a tailored analytical toolbox (concepts, instruments, methods) for a rigorous empirical study of environmental valuation;
- SO2: To test and apply this toolbox on contrasting case studies in two nature parks in Europe;
- SO3: To generate empirically grounded knowledge by identifying, describing and assessing the frictions between different valuation practices in the case studies and subsequently revealing the performative work of a selected sample of valuation devices;
- SO4: To develop a first typology of environmental valuation devices and a future research agenda which consists of testable classification schemes and working hypotheses;
- SO5: to effectively communicate, disseminate and exploit the results to researchers, practitioners in international institutions, European civil society and students.
Each of these SO have been reached, as explained below. Overall, NatUVal has
(1) brought conceptual clarity in the debate on environmental valuation by developing new empirically grounded knowledge based on two concrete case studies [Deliverables D3.1 D3.2 D3.3]; and it has
(2) set the outlines for a systematic and long-term empirical research on the performativity of environmental valuation and its consequences for environmental management [D3.4 D4.3].
