Elements for a comprehensive assessment of natural resources: bridging environmental economics with ecological economics

The predominance of economic assessments regarding the value of natural resources has caused a sub-valuing of the real benefits which societies can obtain from nature. This is due to a lack of knowledge about the complexity of ecological functions, as well as a dismissal of the integrated relations of the sub-systems which make up the environment. It is therefore necessary to establish conceptual bridges between environmental sciences to fill in the gaps in economic valuation methods by recurring to diverse measuring scales, participation from the different actors involved, and a principle of precaution regarding the limits of nature. This paper explores the concepts of value and economic valuation methods from the perspectives of Environmental Economics and Ecological Economics. It then proposes an integration of valuing methodologies which take into account how complementary and complex natures value relations are. This proposal of valuing integrally ecosystem goods and services contributes to adjusting political decisions more accordingly to real environmental conditions.