Iulie Aslaksen

Environmental risk and the precautionary principle. "Late lessons from early warnings" applied to genetically modified plants

The environmental risk associated with genetically modified organisms (GMO) implies that new approaches to risk assessment, risk management and risk communication are needed. In this paper we discuss the role of the precautionary principle in policy responses to GMO risk. We first discuss application of the criteria in the European Environment Agency report “Late lessons from early warnings: The precautionary principle 1896–2000” to environmental GMO risk, with focus on crop plants. Moreover, we discuss Bayesian analysis in the context of improving the informational basis for decision‐making under uncertainty. Finally, environmental uncertainties are intertwined with economic uncertainties. Providing incentives for improved risk assessment, risk management and risk communication is crucial for enhancing environmental and social responsibility and thereby facilitate implementation of precautionary approaches. We discuss environmental and social screening of companies as an example of how such incentives can be provided.

The Nature Index : a general framework for synthesizing knowledge on the State of Biodiversity

The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity indexes will greatly facilitate information transfer from science toward other areas of human society. The Nature Index framework samples scientific information on biodiversity from a variety of sources, synthesizes this information, and then transmits it in a simplified form to environmental managers, policymakers, and the public. The Nature Index optimizes information use by incorporating expert judgment, monitoring-based estimates, and model-based estimates. The index relies on a network of scientific experts, each of whom is responsible for one or more biodiversity indicators. The resulting set of indicators is supposed to represent the best available knowledge on the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in any given area. The value of each indicator is scaled relative to a reference state, i.e., a predicted value assessed by each expert for a hypothetical undisturbed or sustainably managed ecosystem. Scaled indicator values can be aggregated or disaggregated over different axes representing spatiotemporal dimensions or thematic groups. A range of scaling models can be applied to allow for different ways of interpreting the reference states, e.g., optimal situations or minimum sustainable levels. Statistical testing for differences in space or time can be implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. This study presents the Nature Index framework and details its implementation in Norway. The results suggest that the framework is a functional, efficient, and pragmatic approach for gathering and synthesizing scientific knowledge on the state of biodiversity in any marine or terrestrial ecosystem and has general applicability worldwide.

Unpaid household work and the distribution of extended income: The Norwegian experience

Measurement of unpaid household work is important in order to better understand income distribution as well as to give visibility to womens work and achieve more comprehensive estimates of the level of economic activity. This article surveys estimates of unpaid household work in Norway for use in national accounts and analysis of consumption possibilities. The latter are measured by extended income, defined as income after tax plus the value of unpaid household work. We find that extended income appears to be more evenly distributed than money income.

Re-establishing an ecological discourse in the policy debate over how to value ecosystems and biodiversity

In this paper we explore the discourses of ecology, environmental economics, new environmental pragmatism and social ecological economics as they relate to the value of ecosystems and biodiversity. Conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystems as goods and services that can be represented by monetary values in policy processes is an economic discourse being increasingly championed by ecologists and conservation biologists. The latter promote a new environmental pragmatism internationally as hardwiring biodiversity and ecosystems services into finance. The approach adopts a narrow instrumentalism, denies value pluralism and incommensurability, and downplays the role of scientific knowledge. Re-establishing an ecological discourse in biodiversity policy implies a crucial role for biophysical indicators as independent policy targets, exemplified in this paper by the Nature Index for Norway. Yet, there is a recognisable need to go beyond a traditional ecological approach to one recognising the interconnections of social, ecological and economic problems. This requires reviving and relating to a range of alternative ecologically informed discourses, including an ecofeminist perspective, in order to transform the increasingly dominant and destructive relationship of humans separated from and domineering over Nature.

Adapting to Climate Change in Reindeer Herding: The Nation-State as Problem and Solution

This paper discusses the role of nation-states and their systems of gover- nance as sources of barriers and solutions to adaptation to climate change from the point of view of Saami reindeer herders. The Saami, inhabiting the northernmost areas of Fennoscandia, is one of more than twenty ethnic groups in the circumpolar Arctic that base their traditional living on reindeer herding. Climate change is likely to affect the Saami regions severely, with winter temperatures predicted to increase by up to 7 centigrade. We argue that the pastoral practices of the Saami herders are inherently better suited to handle huge natural variation in climatic con- ditions than most other cultures. Indeed, the core of their pastoral practices and herding knowledge is skillful adaptation to unusually frequent and rapid change and variability. This paper argues that the key to handle permanent changes successfully is that herders themselves have sufficient degrees of freedom to act. Considering the similarities in herding practices in the fours nation-states between which Saami culture is now divided . Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia . the systems of governance are surprisingly different. Indeed, the very definition of what is required to be defined as an ethnic Saami is very different in the three Nordic countries. We argue that timely adjust- ments modifying the structures of governance will be key to the survival of the Saami reindeer herding culture. Since the differences in governance regimes . and the need to change national governance structures . are so central to our argument, we spend some time tracing the origins of these systems.

Knowledge gathering and communication on biodiversity: Developing the Norwegian Nature Index

The authors reflect on knowledge-generating and communication processes involved in the recently developed Norwegian Nature Index, particularly the communication process among experts involved in providing the required biodiversity knowledge. Eliciting a comprehensive overview of biodiversity is a complex process involving choices of approaches and methods in order to reach a common understanding of uncertainties and values as a basis for quantification. Part of the complexity is the establishment of dialogue between experts from research institutions with different research traditions and approaches. The authors discuss how the index was developed through communication processes, challenging involved experts to provide not only biodiversity data for the current situation, but also forecasts of future trends, assessments of uncertainty, and evaluations of the urgency of biodiversity loss and possibility of implementing policy and management measures. The Nature Index framework has potential for informing the biodiversity policy debate by involving stakeholders beyond the science-policy community and enhancing deliberations about biodiversity policy in a wider context of sustainable development. As a policy tool, the Nature Index may develop through a process of practical application, which in turn may have an impact on the selection of narratives, definition of management targets, and technical concepts such as reference states.

The Effect of Child Care Subsidies: A Critique of the Rosen Model

In an influential article, Sherwin Rosen (1997) argues that Swedish subsidies of child care services lead to a substantial misallocation of resources that slows economic growth. We offer two major reasons why Rosens approach is flawed. First and foremost, he ignores the positive externalities of increasing the quality of child care, despite their clear relevance to his general equilibrium model. Second, he overlooks distributional impacts, despite evidence that child care subsidies redistribute the costs of children between men and women, rich and poor, young and old. By exploring these and a number of smaller problems with Rosens model we hope to encourage the development of more systematic efforts to explore the effects of state support for child rearing.

An estimation of time and commodity intensity in unpaid household production in Norway

Household welfare is significantly affected by time-use patterns in household work and other activities. In this paper, we combine data from time budget surveys and consumer expenditure surveys in order to analyze the connection between consumption and time use and develop an improved method for allocating consumption expenditure to household activities.

The Norwegian Nature Index

Sustainable development has been a global policy aim for more than 40 years, since the modern environmental movement reached the political agenda in the 1970s. In the early years, the main consideration of sustainability concerned the scarcity of materials and energy and the potential lack of food resources. In recent decades, climate change has been a predominant issue for sustainability policy. Possible lack of water resources as threat to sustainable development has more recently gained the attention of policymakers. The loss of biodiversity is increasingly seen as a sustainability gap, threatening the function of vital ecosystems. Today, together with climate change, the loss of species and habitats is recognized as the greatest global environmental problem. In 1993, Norway ratified the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), initiated at the Rio convention in 1992. International agreements and national policy goals have brought biodiversity loss to the political agenda. In order to give an overview of biodiversity and monitor its future development, the Nature Index was initiated by the Norwegian Government in 2005 and presented in September 2010. The 308 indicators included in the Nature Index, representing animal and plant species, are intended to give an overall representative picture of the state of biodiversity in Norwegian nature. Indicators are also selected to show responsiveness to environmental management; for example, the Nature Index for freshwater aquatic ecosystems shows improvement over time since pollution from acid rain was reduced and watersheds were limed. Thus, the Nature Index differs clearly from the Red List of endangered species and the overview of special nature types as prioritized by the Norwegian Nature Diversity Act of 2009. The Nature Index will be regularly updated in order to show development over time towards the goal of stopping the loss of biodiversity in all major ecosystems. However, the idea behind the Nature Index is not only to use it as a monitoring instrument, but also as a context for establishing environmental policy objectives and linking these to policy instruments. To succeed in this objective, it is necessary to see the Nature Index as not just a tool for scientists and national experts in their assessments of nature and biodiversity. The Nature Index needs to be easily communicated and understood. Its success will require that it can be accepted as a framework or vehicle for policy deliberations between national and local government, important interest groups, and the general public. It is most likely that the acceptance will depend on political support from the public and how the public considers political actions in support of biodiversity conservation and habitat protection. This special issue of Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift Norwegian Journal of Geography presents a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the Nature Index for Norway, starting from the field of natural science, outlining the scientific basis, methods of data collection, the question of dealing with different kinds of uncertainties, including possible future development, and then proceeding to sociological and political science inquiries into how the new policy instrument is received by politicians and how the question of biodiversity loss is viewed by the public. Thus, this special issue demonstrates the interdisciplinary dimension of some fundamental geographical questions. The main reason for offering this broad presentation of the Nature Index is to give readers a more complete understanding of the many different interdisciplinary aspects of this new tool for environmental policy with biodiversity as a key issue for sustainability thus contributing to further the goal of geography as a science of sustainability. The seven articles in this special issue, six of which are coauthored, reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the project. The first two articles, The Norwegian Nature Index state and trends of biodiversity in Norway (Nybø et al. 2012) and The Norwegian Nature Index conceptual framework and methodology (Skarpaas et al. 2012), by ecologists Grégoire Certain, Signe Nybø, and Olav Skarpaas, present the main results of the Nature Index and describe the conceptual framework and methodology. The third article, The Norwegian Nature Index: Expert evaluations in precautionary approaches to biodiversity policy (Aslaksen et al. 2012a), by ecologist Erik Framstad, ecological economist Iulie Aslaksen, geographer Per Arild Garnåsjordet, and statistician Magnar Lillegård, presents the results of a survey among the Nature Index experts about the future state of biodiversity. The fourth article, The ambivalent nature of biodiversity: Scientists’ perspectives on the Norwegian Nature Index (Figari 2012), by sociologist Helene Figari, presents the results of in-depth interviews with the Nature Index experts about their views on biodiversity. The fifth article, Political framings of biological diversity the case of the Norwegian Nature Index (Seippel & Strandbu 2012), by political scientist and sociologist Ørnulf Seippel and sociologist Åse Strandbu, presents the findings of a focus group study of youth politicians’ views on biodiversity. The sixth article, Public opinions on biological diversity in Norway: Politics, science, or culture? (Seippel et al. 2012), is by political scientist and sociologist Ørnulf Seippel, sociologist Bruna De Marchi, geographer Per Arild Garnåsjordet, and ecological economist Iulie Aslaksen. The seventh and final article, Knowledge gathering and communication on biodiversity: Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 66, 239 240. ISSN 0029-1951

Introduction: Quality of Life Indicators

Economic growth has increased the potential for a materially more fulfilling life. But economic growth has a price: it undermines the contributions of households, communities, and nature, on which all economic activity depends. How can we make visible, in economic terms, the qualities that are lost as a consequence of excessive economic activity? In the spirit of these critical discussions, Feminist Economics has initiated this issues exploration of quality of life: Which aspects of life do economists regard as essential to the concept? What can we learn from disciplines whose traditions of quality of life research are older than ours? The ten articles that follow suggest, in the brief form allowed by the format, a number of different ways to approach these questions.