SPECIAL ISSUE SOCIAL PROCESSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL VALUATION The VALSE project—an introduction

This Special Issue of Ecological Economics presents results from The VALSE Project (VALuation for Sustainable Environments), a co-operative international programme of research undertaken during 1996–1998 with the financial support of the European Commission. The research team set out with the goal to demonstrate effective social processes for valuation of environmental amenities and natural capital for conservation and sustainability policy purposes. The project was financed under the European Commission’s Environment and Climate Research Programme (1994–1998): Research Area 4 Human Dimension of Environmental Change (Contract no. ENV4–CT96–0226). The full descriptive title was: ‘Social Processes for Environmental Valuation: Procedures and Institutions for Social Valuations of Natural Capitals in Environmental Conservation and Sustainability Policy’. In the project, valuation and choice have been approached ‘from the point of view of complexity’. By this term, we mean that the question of the value or significance of environmental assets, services and features is considered in a multi-dimensional perspective, reflecting the variety of scales over which a problem may be considered and the range of individual and collective interests and preoccupations that may be involved. “ Individuals have specific interests in the environment as habitat, recreational space, cherished heritage, and space of economic opportunities; “ There are social and collective dimensions of choice reflecting both scientific and social properties of the choice situations; “ Scientific features of significance may include the indivisibility — that is, the collective character — of many environmental goods, services and hazards, the irreversibilities of environmental change, and the uncertainties of complex systems; “ People can express views, individually and as participants in community, on dimensions of value relating to collective identity; “ Issues of fairness, justice and responsibility include considerations relating to the geographical and inter-temporal distributions of costs, risks and benefits, and extend to conflicts and compromises over what is just, right, and proper. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. O’Connor).