Social processes, values and interests: environmental valuation of groundwater in the Tenerife (Canary Islands) case

We discuss the recent institutional history of water resources governance i n Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, as a case of a real social p rocess of environmental valuation. Emphasis is placed on the institutional and cultural factors for the emergence, and change over time, of collective understandings about co-evolution possibilities between natural and socio- economic processes. Tenerife aquifer water resources could be exploited sus tainably. At present, however, a set of interests and collective perception s dominates that treats water as a commodity to be appropriated privately, and that puts faith in new technologies of water production (e.g. desalinat ion) to overcome scarcity. Yet, there is sufficient scientific and economic evidence to support a more precautionary approach based on avoidance of ir reversible deterioration of the aquifer resource.