Eighteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The ecosystem services framework has been criticized for over emphasizing the instrumental value of the non-human natural world and failing to adequately recognize trade-offs between incommensurable types of values and services. In recognition of this critique, the International Platform of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) framework has embraced a plurality of values, explicitly recognizing the intrinsic, instrumental, and relational value of ecosystems. To understand the management implications of incorporating multiple value types into ecosystem services trade-off assessments, we conducted a study quantifying proxies of nine different ecosystem services along a tree species diversity gradient in plantation forests in the coastal Pacific Northwest, USA. We found that most single ecosystem services were maximized by monocultures, but higher levels of tree species diversity tended to supported the largest variety of value types. We hypothesized that biodiversity may be important not just for increasing ecosystem functions and services, but also for value pluralism.