The Crowding Out of Complex Social Goods

- Simple individual goods (like apples apple) generate separable benefits that accrue to individuals.
- Complex social goods (like wedding feasts) generate inseparable benefits that accrue to society as a whole.
- Non-market valuation methods are adept at highlighting the importance of simple individual goods.
- Methods of 'valuing' complex social goods are less well developed.
- Asking only “what does most good for individuals?” we may erode the values we seek to protect.
- One also needs to ask “What does the most good for society?”.

The valuation of ecosystem services to inform natural resource management and development has gained acceptance in many arenas. Yet, contemporary economic valuation is constrained to the appraisal of simple goods that generate benefits that accrue to individuals, neglecting complex goods that generate benefits that accrue to society more broadly. Methodological barriers to the valuation of complex social goods have led to their frequent omission from natural resource management deliberations. The prevailing valuation paradigm that focuses on simple individual goods may erode conservation efforts by crowding out the institutions and behaviours that support socially constructed ecosystem service values. Erosion of these values ultimately harms the environment and society as a whole. The institutionalisation of appropriate methods for estimating the value of complex social goods alongside existing methods for valuing simple individual goods within international conservation, development and policy-making discourses, is therefore an important evolution for sustainable natural resource management.