Valuing nature in context: the contribution of common-good approaches

We draw on a number of empirical studies undertaken in the UK to show how r esidents and farmers come to contest scientific approaches to valuing natur e as the basis for adjudicating conflicts over protected natural areas. The findings of these studies suggest that a widening of the knowledge base on which the goals and practices of nature conservation are founded, and a mo re deliberative process of decision making about what nature is important l ocally, is required if effective conservation partnerships are to be sustai ned. We offer a common good approach to valuing nature as a means of addres sing this problem. A common good approach is based on ethical and moral con cerns about nature and expresses these values through a social and politica l process of consensus building. We illustrate how this common good approac h can be used to prioritise issues in a Local Environment Agency Plan. When linked with a method of Stakeholder Decision Analysis this common good app roach is capable of building coalitions and a measure of consensus between different interests. It achieves this through a transparent and deliberate process of debate and systematic analysis of values that makes explicit the foundation of different knowledge claims about nature.