ABSTRACT
The idea of cultural ecosystem services has been contested from its earliest days. This chapter summarizes nine common critiques of CES, then responds to these and offers potential ways forward that minimize them. The chapter then briefly applies a counterfactual approach to consider alternatives to ES valuation; it asks: what might happen in the absence of CES research; how would CES-related phenomena be addressed? It concludes that, despite many flaws, the CES concept can help to give values related to spirituality, identity, history, non-human relations, and related forms of meaning and co-existence a “seat at the table” in environmental decision-making. This suggests that, in line with the adage “all models are wrong, but some are useful,” the CES concept is “wrong” in many ways, but it is also useful.
