How to make complexity look simple? Conveying ecosystems restoration complexity for socio-economic research and public engagement

Ecosystems degradation represents one of the major global challenges at the present time, threating people’s livelihoods and well-being worldwide. Ecosystem restoration therefore seems no longer an option, but an imperative. Restoration challenges are such that a dialogue has begun on the need to re-shape restoration as a science. A critical aspect of that reshaping process is the acceptance that restoration science and practice needs to be coupled with socio-economic research and public engagement. This inescapably means conveying complex ecosystem’s information in a way that is accessible to the wider public. In this paper we take up this challenge with the ultimate aim of contributing to making a step change in science’s contribution to ecosystems restoration practice. Using peatlands as a paradigmatically complex ecosystem, we put in place a transdisciplinary process to articulate a description of the processes and outcomes of restoration that can be understood widely by the public. We provide evidence of the usefulness of the process and tools in addressing four key challenges relevant to restoration of any complex ecosystem: (1) how to represent restoration outcomes; (2) how to establish a restoration reference; (3) how to cope with varying restoration time-lags and (4) how to define spatial units for restoration. This evidence includes the way the process resulted in the creation of materials that are now being used by restoration practitioners for communication with the public and in other research contexts. Our main contribution is of an epistemological nature: while ecosystem services-based approaches have enhanced the integration of academic disciplines and non-specialist knowledge, this has so far only followed one direction (from the biophysical underpinning to the description of ecosystem services and their appreciation by the public). We propose that it is the mix of approaches and epistemological directions (including from the public to the biophysical parameters) what will make a definitive contribution to restoration practice

Developing the Questionnaire

AbstractThis chapter outlines the essential topics for developing and testing a questionnaire for a discrete choice experiment survey. It addresses issues such as the description of the environmental good, pretesting of the survey, incentive compatibility, consequentiality or mitigation of hypothetical bias. For the latter, cheap talk scripts, opt-out reminders or an oath script are discussed. Moreover, the use of instructional choice sets, the identification of protest responses and strategic bidders are considered. Finally, issues related to the payment vehicle and the cost vector design are the subject of this section

Econometric Modelling: Extensions

AbstractThis chapter is devoted to advanced issues of econometric modelling. The topics covered are, among others, models in willingness to pay space, the meaning of scale heterogeneity in discrete choice models and the application of various information processing rules such as random regret minimisation or attribute non-attendance. Other topics are anchoring and learning effects when respondents move through a sequence of choice tasks as well as different information processing strategies such as lexicographic preferences or choices based on elimination-by-aspects

Poly Economics-Capitalism, Class, and Polyamory

Academic research and popular writing on nonmonogamy and polyamory has so far paid insufficient attention to class divisions and questions of political economy. This is striking since research indicates the significance of class and race privilege within many polyamorous communities. This structure of privilege is mirrored in the exclusivist construction of these communities. The article aims to fill the gap created by the silence on class by suggesting a research agenda which is attentive to class and socioeconomic inequality. The paper addresses relevant research questions in the areas of intimacy and care, household formation, and spaces and institutions and advances an intersectional perspective which incorporates class as nondispensable core category. The author suggests that critical research in the field can stimulate critical self-reflexive practice on the level of community relations and activism. He further points to the critical relevance of Marxist and Postmarxist theories as important resources for the study of polyamory and calls for the study of the contradictions within poly culture from a materialist point of view. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Confronting unfamiliarity with ecosystem functions: The case for an ecosystem service approach to environmental valuation with stated preference methods

Ecosystem functions are a central topic of environmental valuation research. Lay respondents are usually unfamiliar with the implications of scientific descriptions of ecosystem functioning. Thus, the applicability of stated preference methods for the valuation of ecosystem functions is a matter of debate. In the general discourse on the economic valuation of ecosystem functions, it was suggested to valuate ecosystem functions via the ecosystem services they provide. In this contribution, we argue that the recognition of this principle is the key also for the applicability of stated preference methods to the valuation of ecosystem functions. Successful application requires a precise differentiation between the descriptive realm of ecosystem functions and the evaluative realm of ecosystem services. On this basis, an ecosystem service approach for the economic valuation of ecosystem functions is introduced. We illustrate the ecosystem service approach by the valuation of a hydrological ecosystem function in rural Indonesia. Identification and representation of the ecosystem services were based on extensive investigations of respondent perception of hydrological phenomena. The availability of irrigation water during the dry season turned out to be a locally decisive ecosystem service. Within the case study, willingness-to-pay (WTP) values were estimated for changes in the availability of irrigation water, rattan, shading in cacao plantations, and in the population of an endemic mammal by Nested Logit (NL) analysis of choice experiment data. Only few respondents lacked sufficient familiarity of the environmental goods to be valued. WTP for a reduction in water scarcity by one month was ~ 39-40,000 Indonesian Rupiah/household/year. A rating of respondent comprehension correlates with preferences for water availability. For respondents with above average comprehension (rated 4 versus mean of 3.12 at a 5-point scale), NL analysis predicts a 14.1% increase in WTP. Interactions of attitudinal constructs support the notion that the WTP estimate is an expression of underlying values and risk perceptions. The ecosystem service approach comes at a cost. Because ecosystem services relevant to local respondents are valued rather than scientifically described ecosystem functions, typical 'basic science' models that represent ecosystem functioning cannot be used for the analysis of valuation scenarios with direct policy relevance. Engineering-type models that embody technical and, in our case study, agronomic knowledge are necessary to bridge the gap between ecosystem functioning and their practical implications. A lack of this kind of information also hinders a meaningful application of alternative valuation approaches.