Valuing nature: constructing “value” and representing interests in environmental decision making

Abstract

This chapter begins by acknowledging that environmental values underscore almost every aspect of environmental decision making. Using the case of trout in Aotearoa New Zealand, the chapter highlights the variegated and power-infused perspectives and values that shape how nature matters to people. The chapter describes how political ecologists have rendered environmental values and processes of environmental valuation political through critiques associated with commensurability metrics, such as monetary value, and the power-laden ways values are prioritized and actualized (and also marginalized and suppressed) in environmental governance. This analysis underscores how the valuation process is often presented as merely “technical” or “administrative,” despite actually being subjective, non-neutral and severely constrained in both its development and application. This chapter will be useful to researchers interested in the politics and practices of values-based environmental decision making.