IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoser/v70y2024ics2212041624000743.html

Misconceptions about the valuation of ecosystem services

Author

Listed:
  • Costanza, Robert

Abstract

The concept of ecosystem services – the benefits humans derive from functioning ecosystems – has been around for at least 4 decades. Attempts to value those services in monetary and other units have been around for just as long. However, several misconceptions have sprung up about ecosystem services, and especially the valuation of those services in monetary units, that are counterproductive to further dialogue, research, and solutions. This paper attempts to address some of those misconceptions, including showing that: (1) ecosystem services is not an anthropocentric concept; (2) economics is not only the market; (3) valuation is not commodification or privatization; (4) expressing relative values in monetary units is not necessarily ‘market-based’; (5) in a world of trade-offs, whether to perform a valuation is not a choice since it happens implicitly; (6) ‘intrinsic values’ are about rights, not relative valuation; and (7) relative valuation and rights-based approaches are complimentary not mutually exclusive. I address each of these misconceptions in turn and end with a plea for constructive dialogue on these important issues, not continuing unproductive debate founded on fundamental misconceptions.

Suggested Citation

  • Costanza, Robert, 2024. "Misconceptions about the valuation of ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:70:y:2024:i:c:s2212041624000743
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2024.101667
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041624000743
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecoser.2024.101667?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Keryan, Tigran & Radinger-Peer, Verena & Zoderer, Brenda Maria & Schinegger, Rafaela & Asatryan, Vardan, 2026. "Participatory approaches in aquatic ecosystem services valuation: insights from a systematic literature review and future research perspectives," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Affinito, F. & Holzer, J.M. & Fortin, M.-J. & Gonzalez, A., 2025. "Towards a unified ontology for monitoring ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. David W. Shanafelt, 2026. "Ecosystem service provisioning in the Grand Est, France," Working Papers of BETA 2026-01, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    4. Blouin, Denis & Bissonnette, Jean-François & Goyette, Jean-Olivier & Cimon-Morin, Jérôme & Mendes, Poliana & Torchio, Gabriela María & Gosselin-Tapp, Jérôme & Poulin, Monique, 2025. "Ecosystem services concept: Challenges to its integration in government organizations," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Chen, Haojie, 2025. "How to assess realized ecosystem services: Indicators, challenges in determining actual use, and suggestions," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Corsi, G. & Guarino, R. & Muñoz-Ulecia, E. & Grande, U. & Buonocore, E. & Sapio, A. & Franzese, P.P., 2026. "Has “Ecological Economics” betrayed its roots? Revealing its state, internal tensions and evolution through a multi-level and multi-scale bibliometric assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    7. Shanafelt, David W., 2025. "How much is enough? Applying the law of large numbers to the measurement of interactions between ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Jeroen van den Bergh, 2026. "‘Beyond GDP’ Requires Replacement, Not Just Additional Metrics," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 182(2), pages 1-8, March.
    9. Chen, Haojie & Zhang, Tong & Costanza, Robert & Kubiszewski, Ida & Sloggy, Matthew R. & Wu, Luhua & Luo, Haohan, 2025. "Assessing individual and social values of cultural services of a protected area through online deliberation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    10. Inácio, M. & Baltranaitė, E. & Pinto, L.Valença & Meisutovic-Akhtarieva, M. & Barceló, D. & Pereira, P., 2025. "A systematic literature review on the implementation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem accounting in forests, cities and marine areas," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Malinauskaite, Laura & Cook, David & Zaman, Hashim & Gomez-Baggethun, Erik, 2025. "A scoping review of the Cryosphere’s ecosystem services, disservices, and related indicators," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:70:y:2024:i:c:s2212041624000743. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecosystem-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.