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The Metrics of Making Ecosystem Services

The Metrics of Making Ecosystem Services Pamela McElwee ABSTRACT: Ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly used as the conceptual driver for conservation and development actions, largely following from the infl uential Millen- nium Ecosystem Assessment. Scholars skeptical of the neoliberal turn in conservation have critiqued the use of economic values for nature’s services. What has been less well understood and reviewed, however, is how concepts of ES are enacted by technologies of calculation, as well as how calculative practices move through networks and among stakeholders. Th is review traces how defi nitions and metrics of ES have evolved and how they are used, such as in biodiversity off setting and wetland mitigation programs. Using the idea of the creation and deployment of calculative mechanisms, this article discusses how these processes proceed in diff erent ES contexts, assesses what work has to happen ontologically to make ES commensurable and circulatable, and speculates on what the opportunities for future pathways other than commodifi cation are. KEYWORDS: calculation, carbon, commodifi cation, ecosystem services, measurement, metrology Th e concept of ecosystem services (ES) has rapidly become the dominant approach to under- standing and prioritizing the natural world for conservation and development decisions. Major international assessments like the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environment and Society Berghahn Books

The Metrics of Making Ecosystem Services

McElwee, Pamela
Environment and Society , Volume 8 (1) – Sep 1, 2017
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Publisher
Berghahn Books
Copyright
© 2020 Berghahn Books
ISSN
2150-6779
eISSN
2150-6787
DOI
10.3167/ares.2017.080105
Publisher site
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Abstract

Pamela McElwee ABSTRACT: Ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly used as the conceptual driver for conservation and development actions, largely following from the infl uential Millen- nium Ecosystem Assessment. Scholars skeptical of the neoliberal turn in conservation have critiqued the use of economic values for nature’s services. What has been less well understood and reviewed, however, is how concepts of ES are enacted by technologies of calculation, as well as how calculative practices move through networks and among stakeholders. Th is review traces how defi nitions and metrics of ES have evolved and how they are used, such as in biodiversity off setting and wetland mitigation programs. Using the idea of the creation and deployment of calculative mechanisms, this article discusses how these processes proceed in diff erent ES contexts, assesses what work has to happen ontologically to make ES commensurable and circulatable, and speculates on what the opportunities for future pathways other than commodifi cation are. KEYWORDS: calculation, carbon, commodifi cation, ecosystem services, measurement, metrology Th e concept of ecosystem services (ES) has rapidly become the dominant approach to under- standing and prioritizing the natural world for conservation and development decisions. Major international assessments like the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Journal

Environment and Society – Berghahn Books

Published: Sep 1, 2017

Keywords: calculation;carbon;commodification;ecosystem services;measurement;metrology

References