Cheryl Willis – PhD CandidateCentre for Sport, Leisure and Tourism Research

Harnessing Nature’s Benefits: Problems and Prospects for Recognising the Wider Value of Regional Tourist Economies

ESRC CASE studentship held jointly by Geography, College of Life and Environmental Science and Politics, College of Social Sciences and International StudiesSupported by Dorset County Council

Introduction• Context and Background• Purpose and Scope of Research• Environmental Valuation

•Techniques, limitations and alternatives• Conceptual Frameworks

•Ecosystem Services•Wellbeing

• Policy Relevance of a wellbeing approach • Aims and Objectives• Proposed Methodology• Conclusion

Context and Background‘A rational process for assessment of

environmental policy options should be based on an appreciation of how humans value

nature’ (Lockwood, 1999 p381)

Purpose and Scope of ResearchTo explore how an understanding of these intangible values of nature and their contribution to subjective wellbeing can broaden and deepen our understanding of how people value the natural environment in an important tourist area.

Environmental ValuationAn Overview

• Value concepts• Two approaches dominate the literature:

•Neo-classical economic approach•Philosophical /perceptual approach

Monetary Techniques for valuing the environment

• Stated Preference methods• Revealed preference methods

Limitations of Monetary Approaches

‘The environment is a site of conflict between competing values and interests and the

institutions and communities that articulate those values and interests. These cannot be

reduced to a single measure, whether monetary or otherwise’ (O’Neill, 2007 p26)

Perceptual Approaches to Valuing the Environment

‘What is it that renders one person’s muddy little cove another person’s inestimably

valued and prized childhood vacation spot?’ (Craik, 1986 p55)

Conceptual FrameworksEcosystem Services

• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment identified 4 broad types of ecosystem services.• Cultural Services: ‘‘The non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation and aesthetic experience’ (MA, NEA)

Conceptual FrameworkWellbeing

•Classified into two broad categories:Objective - observable measuresSubjective – hedonism eudaimonism

(Ryan & Deci, 2001)

A Wellbeing Perspective to Environmental Valuation

Multi-faceted concept which is difficult to define and measure Provides an innovative way to conceptualise the ways in which the natural environment has worth for people

Policy Relevance of Subjective Wellbeing•Provides a useful and innovative approach to policy appraisal • Establishes the person as the central policy focus• Understanding human needs will help to most efficiently provide opportunities to fulfil those needs

Gaining momentum in Policy Arenas• ‘The issue of wellbeing lies at the heart of

sustainable development and it remains important to develop appropriate wellbeing indicators’ (Securing the Future: the UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy, 2005 p23)

• ‘The time is ripe for our measurement system to shift emphasis from measuring economic production to measuring people’s wellbeing’ (Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, 2009 p12)

Gaining momentum in Policy Arenas ‘Our natural environment underpins our economic prosperity,

our health and our wellbeing. Our land, seas, rivers, woods and fields, parks and open spaces provide us with benefits so fundamental that they are often overlooked. These natural assets have an enormous collective value. The more we understand about the natural world, the more we realise that it supports us in ways which may not always be visible but which have a very real value’

(Defra July 2010, discussion document to feed into the White Paper on the Natural Environment due Spring 2011)

Wellbeing – An Innovative Approach to Policy Assessment

Policy

Change

Impacts in

ecosystem

services

Impacts on

human wellbei

ng

Value of changes in ecosystem services in wellbeing

terms

Measuring Subjective Wellbeing

• Measures of Physical benefit• Measures of psychological benefit• Human Needs Approach

The Needs and Satisfiers Matrix (Max-Neef, 1992)

Human Needs Ways in which perceptions and experiences of nature contributes to the satisfaction of needs

Being Having Doing Interacting

Subsistence

Protection

Affection

Understanding

Participation

Leisure

Creation

Identity

Freedom

Framework for Assessing the Contribution of the Natural Environment to Subjective Wellbeing

Landscape• Physical

setting• Activities• Experience

s

Cultural Services• Cognitive

development

• Aesthetic experiences

• Spiritual enrichment

• Reflection• Recreation

Human Needs• Subsistenc

e• Protection• Affection• Understan

ding• Participati

on• Leisure• Creation• Identity• Freedom

Subjective Wellbeing

Research AimsThe research will explore the ways in which people experience and value the natural environment in an important tourist area and how interactions with it contribute to their perceived wellbeing.It will seek to address how this information can effectively be incorporated into policy decisions about tourism and natural resource management in Dorset’s coastal areas.

Objectives1. To characterise the relationship between Dorset’s coastal

areas and the perceived wellbeing benefits of visitors to these areas

2. To assess the extent to which subjective wellbeing can be used as an effective decision-support tool to assess the impact of different policy options and changes in the environment

3. To assess how an understanding of cultural ecosystem services and subjective wellbeing contributes to the wider debates on environmental valuation and to an appreciation of tourists’ motivations for visiting Dorset’s coastal areas

Case Study Areas

MethodologyObjective 1:•150 on-site surveys at each case study locationThis will largely be based around an adaptation of the Human-Scale Development Matrix to ascertain what human needs are satisfied by recreating in coastal areas• 10 in-depth interviews at each case study site

MethodologyObjective 2:•1 focus group at each case study siteThis will use the adapted Human-Scale Development Matrix as a participatory tool to assess social values and to determine how wellbeing might be affected by changes in the environment

MethodologyObjective 3: To assess how an understanding of cultural ecosystem services and subjective wellbeing contributes to the wider debates on environmental valuation and to an appreciation of tourists’ motivations for visiting Dorset’s coastal areas.

• Analysis of surveys and interviews to explore how intangible benefits of nature contribute to tourists’ motivations for visiting the area or similar areas.•Data collection from Dorset to assess how ideas of wellbeing can enrich economic data already collected in Dorset•Synthesis of ideas and reflections

Concluding Remarks

‘Natural resources are not only raw materials to be inventoried and moulded into a recreation

opportunity, but also, and more important, places with histories, places that people care about, places that for many people embody a

sense of belonging and purpose that give meaning to life’ (Williams et al, 1992, p44).

References•CRAIK, K. H. (1986) Psychological Reflections on Landscape. IN PENNING-ROWSELL, E. C. & LOWENTHAL, D. (Eds.) Landscape Meanings and Values. Allen & Unwin Publishers Ltd.•CRUZ I, STAHEL A, MAX-NEEF M (2009) Towards a systemic development approach: Building on the Human-Scale Development Paradigm. Ecological Economics 68 p2021-2030•DEVINE-WRIGHT, P. & HOWES, Y. (2010) Disruption to place attachment and the protection of restorative environments: A wind energy case study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Article in press, p1-10.•KAPLAN, R. & KAPLAN, S. (1989) The Experience of Nature - A Psychological Perspective, Cambridge University Press.•KELLERT, S. R. & WILSON, E. O. (Eds.) (1993) The Biophilia Hypothesis, Island Press.•LOCKWOOD M (1999) Humans Valuing Nature: Synthesising Insights from Philosophy, Psychology and Economics. Environmental Values 8 p381-401• O’NEILL J (2007) Markets, Deliberation and the Environment. Routledge, London•RYAN, R. M. & DECI, E. L. (2001) On Happniess and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, P141-66.•SHULTIS, J. (2003) Recreational Values of Protected Areas. IN HARMON, D. & PUTNEY, A. D. (Eds.) The Full Value of Parks. From Economics to the Intangible. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.•ULRICH, R. S. (1979) Visual Landscapes and Psychological Well-Being. Landscape Research, 4, p17-23•WILLIAMS, D. R. & PATTERSON, M. E. (1996) Environmental Meaning and Ecosystem Management: Perspectives from Environmental Psychology and Human Geography. Society & Natural Resources, 9, p507-521.•WILLIAMS, D. R., PATTERSON, M. E., ROGGENBUCK, J. W. & WATSON, A. E. (1992) Beyond the Commodity Metaphor: Examining Emotional and Symbolic Attachment to Place. Leisure Sciences, 14, p29-46.