Challenges in using valuation in ecosystem-based management in a marine context: the case of UK Marine Protected Area designation - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 262

praisal can inform the scientific research agenda, in the sense that research efforts might be
focusedinpartonecosystemservicesthatarebothvaluablebutalsounder-researched.Any
economicassessment usingvaluationcannotsubstitute forbiophysicalmodelling.Riskand
uncertainty (and hence the need for sensitivity analysis) are ubiquitous in any biophysical
modelling and this is potentially where the interrelatedness of the disciplines can steer a
mutually beneficial course.
In terms of any valuation being fit for purpose, by definition we need to know what
that purpose is. As Desvousges et al . ( 1998 ) aptly remark (cited in Fletcher, 2012 ), if the
decision-making context is purely awareness-raising then accuracy is not of tantamount
importance, whereas if valuation is being applied to assess potentially irreversible actions
or ones that might stimulate (or indeed the converse, that is mitigate the potential for)
threshold effects, including the extinction of a species, then we need to heed caution and
require a significantly higher level of methodological rigour in our valuations.