The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services provides an overview of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), which are the nonmaterial aspects of benefits that people derive from nature. These diverse and multifaceted contributions can include experiences, capabilities, and identities, among others. The Handbook addresses how these CES are valued, how they reflect human-nonhuman relationships, and what roles they can play in improved human well-being, ecosystem management, and trajectories towards sustainability.

This Handbook presents a wide array of perspectives on the roles CES can play in understanding relationships to nature, and on how those relationships might translate into policy. The Handbook includes philosophical approaches to CES, typologies and classifications of types of CES, and case studies of places, people, policies and projects engaging CES. Across seven distinctive Parts, the chapters deliver a number of important practical lessons on how to understand, measure and value CES, and use examples and applications from around the world, including how CES apply across different biomes. The Handbook also includes a selection of compelling artwork that represent CES in different cultural contexts. The 91 authors represent 19 different countries, providing a rich range of experiences, including a strong focus on the Global South.

This book can serve as a comprehensive guide to researchers who are new to CES and wish to understand more about the field, and as a set of go-to instructions for experienced CES researchers. It can also inform policymakers who wish to better incorporate CES into their work.

Pamela D. McElwee is trained as an anthropologist and forester and is a Professor of Human Ecology at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on human dimensions of environmental change related to biodiversity and climate. She has served key roles in science-policy assessments including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and US National Climate Assessment.

Karen Allen is a cultural anthropologist who works in conservation and sustainability science. Her research focuses on the sustainability of social-ecological systems and the interaction between environmental policy and human decision-making. She is an Associate Professor at Furman University.

Rachelle K. Gould is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work involves social science, the humanities, and ecology. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Vermont. Her research explores the relationship between people and ecosystems and focuses on: (1)environmental values, including Cultural Ecosystem Services and relational values; (2)lifelong and life-wide environmental learning and its relationship to behavior; and (3) how issues of equity, inclusion, and justice permeate environmental issues.

Minna Hsu is a human geographer whose work focuses on Indigenous peoples’ rights and knowledges in natural resource and disaster management. She is co-lead of the IUCN Cultural Practices and Ecosystem Management Thematic Group (Commission on Ecosystem Management).

Jun He is a professor of human ecology at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Yunnan University, China. His research interests lie in global value chains, indigenous knowledge, non-timber forest products, agroforestry and forest governance.