Defra – Nature vital to our health, wealth and happiness
What is the value of a beach access? How much should a great landscape view cost? How much per metaphorical decibel is “quiet enjoyment” literally worth? Estate agents have been playing fast and loose with the value of these concepts for generations. There has however been a dearth of answers in terms of broader approaches to cost benefit analysis when it comes to development in the countryside. This is also true in coastal terms in relation the decision to defend the land or not in shoreline management plans.
The snappily named ‘Economic valuation of the benefits of ecosystem services delivered by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan’ report, to which this Defra press release refers, addresses some of these fundamental questions. It “monetarises” the value of natural assets using a number of techniques which, whilst removed from the layman by the use of opaque terminology and highly technical academic methodologies, do provide (on face value) a really important clue to the value of things which may have been seen as intangible in hard cash terms.
This is important because it helps us get right to the heart of the conservation versus development agenda by ascribing values to things which might be lost or compromised by development. It also helps in the coastal debate. It does this by offering more evidence to demonstrate that the current approach, which still heavily concentrates on the physical value of buildings, could be widened to recognize the not inconsiderable value of landscapes and habitats, when decisions to defend or not defend areas suffering coastal erosion are considered.