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Module Figure 19 Environmental value
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9-12 December, 2013

(Bateman and others 2003)

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) considered valuation a “tool that enhances the ability of
decision-makers to evaluate trade-offs between alternative ecosystem management regimes and courses
of social action that alter the use of ecosystems and the multiple services they provide (MA 2005).”

The MA’s conceptual valuation methodology was based on the TEV framework described earlier, but
also placed significant emphasis and research on intrinsic aspects of ecosystem value, particularly in
relation to socio-cultural values. Their methodology, involves “estimating the change in the physical flow
of benefits (quantifying biophysical relations) and tracing through and quantifying a chain of causality
between changes in ecosystem condition and human welfare” (Figure 20b). The MA authors recognize
that a common problem in this methodology is that “data is only available on some of the links of the
chain and in incompatible units.”

62 Integrated Analysis of Environmental Trends and Policies