MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Department of Economics Seminar Series 

"Diverse values and valuation of nature in decision-making and for sustainability"

by

Begüm Özkaynak

(Boğaziçi University)

Date: November 10, 2025 (Monday)

Time: 14:00

Place: Fikret Görün Seminar Room (F106), FEAS - Building A

Abstract

​This seminar builds on the IPBES Assessment of the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature (2022) and its synthesis in Nature (2023) to explore how nature’s diverse values—economic, ecological, social, and cultural—can be better integrated into decision-making. Despite growing awareness, environmental policies continue to privilege market-based, instrumental values while neglecting intrinsic and relational ones. The study introduces a typology linking worldviews, broad moral principles, specific value types, and value indicators, supported by evidence from more than 50,000 sources and 1,000 valuation cases. It classifies valuation approaches into four method families—nature-based, statement-based, behaviour-based, and integrated valuation—and examines why their policy uptake remains limited despite methodological progress. It argues that overcoming these barriers requires confronting value incommensurability, power asymmetries, and institutional biases embedded in economic governance. For economists, the key challenge lies in moving beyond monetization toward deliberative and plural valuation capable of reconciling competing objectives and advancing both sustainability and justice.