Hi, I had a look at the questionnaire. It asks for a ranking of listed values/ecological services "from the monetary point of view". So, the decision to rank by money or profit has already been made (I wonder by whom?). The questionnaire rather shows that there is no generally accepted objective approach for putting a price on ecosystem services. The price will depend on the demand for a certain service and the demand will differ from place to place and from time to time. I don't think I can contribute as an ecologist to this economic ranking. Rather, I will use the extra space in the questionnaire to point out that the ranking should also be done according to other scales than economic value.
Martin Am 2012-03-13 um 22:51 schrieb David Branson: > A one page questionnaire has been distributed by the U. of Wyoming to help > estimate comprehensive values of western US rangelands based on rankings of > ecological services/values provided by western rangelands. The main impetus > for the survey is to justify the importance of large-scale grasshopper > control programs by USDA-APHIS using insecticides on rangeland. The survey > was provided to parties interested in grasshopper management, but it would > be helpful if ecologists could provide input by ranking the importance of > the 15 ecological services/values of western rangelands included in the > questionnaire and adding missing items. Note the deadline for responses of > March 19th. > > The one page survey can be downloaded at the following link. If the link > doesn’t work, email me. > > http://www.box.com/s/d8iili0urejj3no193dj ------------------| http://sci.martinkoechy.de |-------------------- Dr. Martin Köchy (Koechy) Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut -Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei- Institut für Agrarrelevante Klimaforschung Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute -Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries- Institute of Agricultural Climate Research vTI-AK * Bundesallee 50 * 38116 Braunschweig * GERMANY Telefon: +49-531-596-2640 * Telefax: +49-531-596-2699 http://www.vti.bund.de/de/startseite/institute/ak.html skype: martinkoechy --------------------------- & ------------------------------- AG Vegetationsökologie & Naturschutz|RG Veg. Ecology & Nature Conserv. Universität Potsdam | University of Potsdam Am Neuen Palais 10 * 14469 Potsdam * GERMANY www.bio.uni-potsdam.de/professuren/vegetationsoekologie-naturschutz
