Discourse-based valuation of ecosystem services: establishing fair outcomes through group deliberation

Discourse-based methods involving small groups of citizens have yet to be thoroughly engaged in the practice of ecosystem valuation. This remains true despite the fact that many ecosystem goods and services-such as clean air, biodiversity, and unpolluted lakes and rivers-are considered to be public goods. The conventional application of ecosystem valuation relies heavily on methodologies such as contingent valuation, in which individuals are asked to express the value they attach to ecosystem goods and services in social isolation. The difference between the public nature of ecosystem services and their valuation through individual expression has thus recently led to calls for more deliberative forms of environmental valuation. Because the allocation of ecosystem services directly affects many people and raises normative questions about social equity, it is argued that carefully designed discursive methods will help ensure the achievement of social equity goals. In this paper, we examine the theoretical and normative assumptions that rest beneath the proposed turn towards discourse-based methods, and identify procedures for testing their application in the field. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.