Is valuing nature contributing to policy development?

This paper examines technical, ethical and ecological science perspectives on environmental valuation, and discusses problems in terms of the implications for practical policy-making. It suggests that all these perspectives raise legitimate concerns about the use of stated preference methods, but concludes that such methods still have a role to play in policy making for nature conservation provided they are applied in the right circumstances, designed very carefully, and used in conjunction with other decision-making tools.