ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the topic of CES monetary valuation in terms of practice, promises, and pitfalls. We frame our discussion of CES within broader efforts to quantify Ecosystem Services using monetary metrics, and we examine how monetary valuation poses particular challenges for CES. We focus on trends and highly cited studies, while drawing from our own experiences as researchers. In doing so, we pay particular attention to arguments for monetary valuation, recommended practices, and related critiques. Our analysis reveals the strength of CES monetary valuation for communicating some aspects of the multiple “values of nature” in a public policy setting, and we suggest that ignoring monetary valuation may further render CES invisible in the public eye. We discuss consistent weaknesses of CES monetary valuation, with a focus on imprecision of techniques and the inadequacy of value translation to monetary terms. We suggest that researchers maintain transparency about the shortcomings of monetary valuation when applying this tool to CES valuation and related policy design. Based on our findings, we also suggest that policy recommendations coming from CES valuation combine monetary valuation with qualitative elements to provide a broad assessment of values that speak to policy.
