Robin Gregory

Valuing Environmental Resources: A Constructive Approach

The use of contingent valuation (CV) methods for estimating the economic value of environmental improvements and damages has increased significantly. However, doubts exist regarding the validity of the usual willingness to pay CV methods. In this article, we examine the CV approach in light of recent findings from behavioral decision research regarding the constructive nature of human preferences. We argue that a principal source of problems with conventional CV methods is that they impose unrealistic cognitive demands upon respondents. We propose a new CV approach, based on the value-structuring capabilities of multiattribute utility theory and decision analysis, and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.

Selecting Attributes to Measure the Achievement of Objectives

The foundation for any decision is a clear statement of objectives. Attributes clarify the meaning of each objective and are required to measure the consequences of different alternatives. Unfortunately, insufficient thought typically is given to the choice of attributes. This paper addresses this problem by presenting theory and guidelines for identifying appropriate attributes. We define five desirable properties of attributes: they should be unambiguous, comprehensive, direct, operational, and understandable. Each of these properties is discussed and illustrated with examples, including several cases in which one or more of the desirable properties are not met. We also present a decision model for selecting among the different types of natural, proxy, and constructed attributes.

Bringing stakeholder values into environmental policy choices: a community-based estuary case study

Abstract This paper discusses a methodology for joining deliberation and analysis, using the case-study example of a National Estuary Program planning effort in Tillamook Bay, OR, USA. We describe the development of a community-based evaluation tool that links actions proposed by technical experts (e.g. biologists, ecologists, engineers) to restore functioning of the Tillamook Bay estuary with the values and concerns expressed by community residents. This task required the explicit consideration of trade-offs across multiple benefits, costs, and risks. We describe the design and results of an evaluation workbook, developed with input from both the EPA staff and community residents, that provided insight to decision makers by presenting participants with explicit choices across the key dimensions and consequences of proposed actions. The final section of the paper discusses the successes and limitations of the project in relation to evaluation needs associated with other environmental policy initiatives.

From Invisibility to Transparency: Identifying the Implications

This paper explores the need for a broader and more inclusive approach to decisions about land and resources, one that recognizes the legitimacy of cultural values and traditional knowledge in environmental decision making and policy. Invisible losses are those not widely recognized or accounted for in decisions about resource planning and decision making in resource- and land-use negotiations precisely because they involve considerations that tend to be ignored by managers and scientists or because they are often indirect or cumulative, resulting from a complex, often cumulative series of events, decisions, choices, or policies. First Nations communities in western North America have experienced many such losses that, together, have resulted in a decline in the overall resilience of individuals and communities. We have identified eight types invisible losses that are often overlapping and cumulative: cultural/lifestyle losses, loss of identity, health losses, loss of self-determination and influence, emotional and psychological losses, loss of order in the world, knowledge losses, and indirect economic losses and lost opportunities. To render such invisible losses more transparent, which represents the first step in developing a more positive and equitable basis for decision making and negotiations around land and resources, we recommend six processes: focusing on what matters to the people affected, describing what matters in meaningful ways, making a place for these concerns in decision making, evaluating future losses and gains from a historical baseline, recognizing culturally derived values as relevant, and creating better alternatives for decision making so that invisible losses will be diminished or eliminated in the future.

Why the WTA-WTP disparity matters

Abstract The disparity between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept compensation (WTA) has been demonstrated repeatedly. Because using WTP estimates of value where a WTA estimate is appropriate tends to undervalue environmental assets, this issue is important to environmental managers. We summarize reasons for the disparity and then discuss some of the implications for management of environmental assets. We end by suggesting some approaches for dealing with the lack of credible methods for estimating WTA values of environmental goods.

Using Structured Decision Making to Help Implement a Precautionary Approach to Endangered Species Management

Endangered species protection is a significant risk management concern throughout North America. An extensive conceptual literature emphasizes the role to be played by precautionary approaches. Risk managers, typically working in concert with concerned stakeholders, frequently cite the concept as key to their efforts to prevent extinctions. Little has been done, however, to evaluate the multidimensional impacts of precautionary frameworks or to assist in the examination of competing precautionary risk management options as part of an applied risk management decision framework. In this article we describe how decision-aiding techniques can assist in the creation and analysis of alternative precautionary strategies, using the example of a multistakeholder committee charged with protection of endangered Cultus Lake salmon on the Canadian west coast. Although managers were required to adopt a precautionary approach, little attention had been given to how quantitative analyses could be used to help define the concept or to how a precautionary approach might be implemented in the face of difficult economic, social, and biological tradeoffs. We briefly review key steps in a structured decision-making (SDM) process and discuss how this approach was implemented to help bound the management problem, define objectives and performance measures, develop management alternatives, and evaluate their consequences. We highlight the role of strategy tables, employed to help participants identify, alternative management options. We close by noting areas of agreement and disagreement among participants and discuss the implications of decision-focused processes for other precautionary resource management efforts.

Beyond Perception: The Experience of Risk and Stigma in Community Contexts

Concerns about stigmatization are an important influence on the development of risk management and communication policies for a wide range of technologies and products such as those associated with hazardous waste storage, nuclear power, and genetic engineering of plants or foods. Although much attention has been placed on the adverse economic effects of stigma, we believe that the social, psychological, and cultural impacts are often at least as significant and merit greater attention from policymakers and researchers. Evidence for these impacts of stigma is found in recent studies of resource-based communities, whose residents may be shunned by local and nonlocal publics and whose products may suffer a loss of markets, which in turn creates social and economic hardship for community residents. We examine these aspects of stigma and link descriptions of the problem and prescriptions of recommended policies to five underlying characteristics of stigma, focusing on the possible insights and contributions from trade-off analysis and narrative approaches.

Risk perceptions, stigma, and health policy

Abstract Perceptions of risk have been the subject of serious scientific study for over 30 years. Although many experts in risk management and public health believe that the world has become safer during this time, survey results suggest that public fears of technological hazards have increased substantially. One of the clearest signs of this gap is the increasing evidence that certain places, products, and technologies have become stigmatized: shunned by an anxious public not just because of standard perceptions of risk but because a positive condition or expectation has been overturned. In legislatures, courtrooms, and economic markets around the world, stigma represents an increasingly significant factor affecting peoples perceptions of their health and influencing the acceptance of scientific and technological innovations. This paper reviews our current understanding of the risk perceptions that lie behind stigma, discusses relevant results from two recent Canadian surveys, and examines recommended management responses.

Some Pitfalls of an Overemphasis on Science in Environmental Risk Management Decisions

This paper addresses the question whether calls for “more” and “better” science will have the intended effect of improving the quality of decisions about environmental risks. There are reasons to be skeptical: key judgment tasks that fundamentally shape many aspects of decisions about environmental risk management lie outside the domain of science. These tasks include making value judgments explicit, integrating facts and values to create innovative alternatives, and constructively addressing conflicts about uncertainty. To bring new specificity to an old debate, we highlight six pitfalls in environmental risk decisions that can occur as the result of an overemphasis on science as the basis for management choices.

Narrative valuation in a policy judgment context

Much natural resource policy work stresses the importance of involving lay and expert stakeholders in a dialogue about environmental values pertaining to decisions about land management. To this end, there is growing interest in value elicitation techniques that: (a) provide alternatives to values expressed as willingness to pay formulas; and (b) do a good job of representing the many social, ethical, scientific, or economic value dimensions of a problem and linking those dimensions to the evaluation of a specific policy. Toward these objectives, this paper explores the technique of narrati6e 6aluation, that is, the act of situating a valuation and decision problem in the context of a narrated story. It reports on an experiment that tested a narrative-based representation of a problem against a utilitarian one (didactic text) to see which representation better served the decision process. The relative proficiency of both formats was tested in the context of a policy decision about the impact of hydroelectric power production on a river’s salmon population. The narrative technique appeared better able to help participants consider relevant value information such that they could apply that information to a complex policy judgment. Some reasons for the success of the narrative condition are discussed, including the technique’s capacity for engaging participants and rendering technical information salient. The paper closes with some recommendations for further tests of narrative-based valuation tools.