The Challenge of Embedding an Ecosystem Services Approach: Patterns of Knowledge Utilisation in Public Policy Appraisal

John Turnpenny, Duncan Russel and Andrew Jordan
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John Turnpenny: School of Political, Social and International Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, England
Duncan Russel: Department of Politics, Amory Building, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, England
Andrew Jordan: Tyndall Centre, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, England

Environment and Planning C, 2014, vol. 32, issue 2, 247-262

Abstract: The ‘ecosystem services approach’ (ESA) to policy making has refocused attention on how knowledge is embedded in policy. Appraisal has long been identified as an important venue for embedding, but suffers from well-known difficulties. This paper examines the extent to which an ESA appears in UK policy appraisal documents, and how far implementing an ESA via appraisal may encounter the same difficulties. A clear understanding of this is vital for interrogating claims that improving knowledge necessarily leads to more sustainable ecosystem management. The paper reports on the content of seventy-five national-level policy appraisals undertaken in the United Kingdom between 2008 and 2012. Only some elements of an ESA appear, with even the environment ministry failing to systematically pick up the concept, which is indeed subject to many of the familiar barriers to embedding environmental knowledge in appraisals. Policy initiatives attempting to institutionalise ecosystem values need to be conversant with these barriers.

Keywords: ecosystem services; policy appraisal; UK; public policy; knowledge utilisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:32:y:2014:i:2:p:247-262

DOI: 10.1068/c1317j

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