MSEM Assistant Professor Maggie Winslow Speaks at the ISEE Conference in Iceland

Assistant Professor Maggie Winslow gave a talk at the bi-annual International Society of Ecological Economics conference in Reykjavik, Iceland in August.  The title of her talk was "Barriers to ESV Use in Municipal and Regional Decisions Making in the U.S."

Here is the summary of her talk: 

Recent advances in the practice of ecosystem services valuation (ESV) have made relevant data and tools for assigning value to ecosystem services increasingly accessible. Ostensibly, the primary purpose for developing ESV techniques and results is to aid decision making related to environmental resources. While there is extensive literature exploring the importance of ESV, developing tools for valuation, and presenting the results from valuation studies for a variety of resources, as well as excellent collections of studies and tools for assisting decision-makers with using ESV in decision making, the literature on the actual use of ESV in decision making is thin, suggesting that ESV remains more academic than practical.  This paper considers four types of barriers to the inclusion of ESV in decision making in the United States for regional and municipal decision making: lack of knowledge of ESV by decision-makers; perceived inadequacy or inaccuracy of ESV; costs of conducting ESV studies; and a regulatory framework that inhibits the use of ESV.  It concludes with recommendations on how these barriers might best be overcome and suggestions for future research.