Evidence – Based policymaking? Understanding

Transcript:Evidence – Based policymaking? Understanding:
Evidence – Based policymaking? Understanding evidence engagement in the Scottish Government for Natural Capital Policy Swiss Science, Technology and Society Conference 1st September 2023 J. Antonio Ballesteros-Figueroa Acknowledging Kerry Waylen Introduction This presentation seeks to discuss whether the Natural Capital approach reinforces or challenges the assetisation of the environment (Levidow, 2020). The research is part of a larger project being conducted at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Galvanizing Change via Natural Capital project seeks to understand how the concept of Natural Capital can influence decision making towards sustainable transitions. The environment as a diversity of concerns Food, potable water, clothing, a roof over one's head, clean air, a sense of belonging, participating with others in one's community, and a reason for hope are no doubt universal needs. Nevertheless, the emphasis people place on the goods and services Nature supplies differs widely. To farmers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, it could be declining sources of water and increasing variability in rainfall in the foreground of global climate change. To indigenous populations in Amazonia, it may be eviction not just from their physical home, but from their spiritual home too. To inhabitants of shanty towns everywhere, the worry may be the infections they are exposed and subjected to from open sewers; to the suburban household in the UK, it may be the absence of bees and butterflies in the garden; (…) The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (Dasgupta 2021) Aims Explore whether the notion of NC may be strengthening specific types of expertise, perhaps economic approach towards the environment. Understand what is the role of Natural Capital in challenging or reinforcing the assetisation of the environment? To lay the foundations for a study aiming to understand how the concept of Natural Capital may being used within the Scottish Government as part of the policy-making process. Ecosystem Services and Environmental Policy-making One of the dispositifs through which climate change is expected to be managed is the notion of Ecosystem Services (ES). Ecosystems are defined based on their contributions to human well-being (Haines-Young and Potschin 2018). This approach recognises ecosystems as "valuable capital assets" to which it is necessary to set prices on the "services" they provide (Kareiva et al. 2011:4). ES can be seen as an expectation given the need to analyse who, and under which conditions, is designing these projects. ES operate under the assumption that the