The Generations of Cultural Ecosystem Services Research

Understanding the cultural dimensions of human-nature relationships and integrating them into decision-making is a central goal of conservation social science. One prominent avenue for this work is the characterization and analysis of cultural ecosystem services (CES). Because the need to recognize CESs is not going away, we reflected on where CES research has been, where it is now, and where it might go. We refer to the current field as second-generation CES: a suite of approaches and innovations (biocultural indicators, relational values, and nonmaterial nature's contributions to people) that enhance, reject, or modify some of the premises of first-generation CES. These new approaches can be understood as a pluralistic menu of options to capture the essence of what CES aimed to, or failed to fully, represent. Nonmaterial factors can affect conservation decision-making via 4 main channels: evaluation or assessment, elucidation of trade-offs, epistemic and social recognition, and, in some cases, the reclassification of what nature itself is.

Gould, R. K., Satterfield, T., Leong, K., & Fisk, J. (2025). The generations of cultural ecosystem services research. Conservation Biology, e70065. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.70065

Last updated by Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center on 07/10/2025

More Information

• Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Publications Database
• Ecosystem Modeling in the Pacific