The underestimation of nature is the basis of the climate and biodiversity crisis, according to a study led by the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3) and Ikerbasque, which considers it essential to improve the perception of natural values and integrate them into the formulation of public politics.
The study, published in the journal Nature, identifies four "value-focused approaches" that can serve to foster the conditions for "transformative change towards a fairer and more sustainable future."
Along these lines, it raises the need to recognize the diversity of values in the relationship with nature, incorporate these diverse values into decision-making in all sectors, reform policies and institutional frameworks, and change social norms to support values aligned with The sustainability.
In this global investigation, led by the BC3 researcher and the Basque Foundation for Science-Ikerbasque Unai Pascual, more than eighty authors have participated, analyzing more than 50,000 scientific publications and sources of indigenous and local knowledge.
According to the researchers, currently market-based values (for example, those associated with intensively produced food) tend to prevail over those related to many other contributions and services that nature provides to people, such as adaptation to change. climate change or sustain cultural identities.
The latter are "just as essential to achieve just and sustainable societies", according to the study, which adds that biodiversity conservation policies, such as the expansion of protected area networks, have often also given priority to limited sets of nature values.
Thus, "they have frequently marginalized the values of local communities and indigenous peoples, who, in many cases, have ensured the protection of the biodiversity of their territories."
The authors of the study believe that in order to achieve fairer and more sustainable futures "it is essential to break away from the predominance of short-term profits and economic growth at all costs."
"The scientific community has developed a wide range of valuation methods. What is in short supply is the willingness or capacity of governments and other key stakeholders to apply these methods and incorporate them into their decision-making systems in a way that takes into account account representation, equity and power relations between the different parties involved in the valuation processes”, Pascual pointed out.
The researchers led by Pascual propose to "redefine" the concepts of development and well-being, and recognize the multiple ways in which people relate to each other and to the natural world.
