Diverse values of nature for sustainability.

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature's diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature's values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a 'values crisis' underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature's diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.

Recognizing, normalizing and articulating: An approach to highlight plural values of water ecosystem services in Colombia.

The dialectical relationship between ecosystems and society is complex; therefore, holistic approaches are required to address this complexity. This view also stands out in the ecosystem services valuation field, where different scholars and global platforms have drawn attention to the need to incorporate plural valuation initiatives at decision-making. In this sense, through a comprehensive design, we conducted a multi-layered valuation of ecosystem services, and we highlighted multiple values in two areas of the province of Caldas, Colombia. We proposed a three-phase valuation process called Recognizing, Normalizing and Articulating values. Then, in cooperation with the regional environmental authority, we obtained different water-related ecosystem services values. Our results showed some warnings: first, we found mismatches between ecosystem services values; second, people assigned high values to ecosystems but the actual capacity of ecosystems to support ES is low. Finally, monetary values were marginal compared to social and ecological values. We conclude by saying that the more strata are assessed, the more values appear in the valuation scenarios, and those values could be conflicting. Our results have political implications, since they highlight the need to incorporate plural values as a fundamental tool for planning and land use in real scenarios where conflicts of interest and values are evident.

Involving victim population in environmentally sustainable strategies: An analysis for post-conflict Colombia.

Environmental objectives tend to receive a push to the background in post-conflict scenarios. On the other hand, the processes displacement and refugee's relocation in post-conflict countries have been associated with different environmental impacts. Currently, Colombia faces a post-conflict scenario, which brings about relevant socio-environmental challenges: it is a mega-biodiverse country, it has millions of displaced people and is one of the most inequitable country in the world. Since there is a gap in post-conflict studies regarding the exploration of victims' involvement in environmental strategies, this paper aims to analyze victims' willingness to participate (WP) in Land Recovery Strategies (LRS) in post-conflict Colombia. This research (1) describes the socio-economic characteristics of forced-displacement victims from a Caribbean municipality of Colombia; (2) analyzes the victims' WP in hypothetical LRS and their preferred type of participation in the project, (3) identifies the way of grouping victims according their WP. Finally, (4) it analyzes the kind of benefits victims would prefer to receive in exchange for their participation in the LRS. Our results made evident that the majority of the consulted victims are willing to participate in LRS by giving up manual work time or in exchange of local ecological knowledge. We also found that the victims' participation in LRS associates to the age of the respondents, and whether they have benefited from government programs previously. Victims would prefer monetary retribution in exchange for their involvement in LRS, which may be explained by their vulnerable socioeconomic conditions. This research also demonstrates that victims with positive WP in LRS are a heterogeneous group. We highlight the need of actively involving women in LRS and other post-conflict projects in order to ensure their wellbeing. The results of this research are valuable, because they put forward the population of victims as an active performer within environmental sustainability.