Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Reports
URL http://hdl.handle.net/10419/52233
Document publication document
Title (Primary) GeNECA 2: Ecosystem effects on well-being: more than just "benefits"? Looking at ecosystem services through the capability approach
Author Polishchuk, Y.; Rauschmayer, F.
Source Titel UFZ Discussion Papers
Year 2011
Department UPOL
Volume 6/2011
Page To 22
Language englisch
Abstract Conceptual discussions on the impacts of ecosystem services (ESS) on human well-being have largely been boiled down to limits and applications of their monetisation. Therefore, in practice, the use of the ESS concept has been to a large extent boiled down to payment-for-ecosystem-services schemes. In this paper we argue that the human well-being dimension of the ESS concept has to be revisited since it is more diverse than the widely cited notion of benefits (MA, 2005). To tackle this issue, we examine the ESS concept through the lens of the capability approach, which offers a pluralistic framework for well-being as an alternative to mainstream utilitarian or monetary perspectives. We argue that ESS can effectively be viewed as contributing - in different ways - to people's multidimensional capability sets, i.e. their freedoms to lead a life they have reason to value. Such a view allows us to go beyond currently prevailing utilitarianism in analysing effects of ecosystems on human well-being, thus contributing with a new perspective to the current discourse on the use of the ESS concept.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=11777
Polishchuk, Y., Rauschmayer, F. (2011):
GeNECA 2: Ecosystem effects on well-being: more than just "benefits"? Looking at ecosystem services through the capability approach
UFZ Discussion Papers 6/2011
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ, Leipzig, 22 pp.