Exploring the inclusion of multicultural ecosystem services values in environmental planning

Abstract

This paper advocates including and comprehending multicultural values for cultural ecosystem services (CES) in environmental planning metrics. CES can provide metrics for assessing the effectiveness of environmental planning. Environmental planning metrics sometimes adopt models that do not fairly incorporate perspectives from historically excluded ethnic groups. Including multicultural ecological values can improve the quality of policies that seek to conserve and preserve the biophysical environment. This paper proposes an unfolding framework for reimagining ecosystem-based adaptations, a nature-based solution that overlaps ideas of socioecological benefits through cultural ecosystem services. In addition, the authors offer examples of including missing cultural values in environmental planning, drawing on a review of ecosystem-based adaptations and frameworks of reimagination.

Keywords

• Environmental ethics
• Environmental justice
• Cultural ecosystem services
• Ecosystem-based adaptations
• Reimagination