Costing of the environment - a study of public understanding

Abstract

The public understanding and awareness of the Ecosystem services approach that is being used by Government to value the environment and the services it provides will be examined in this study. The Government is an elected body that runs the country on behalf of the population, despite the elected nature of this body, there are often decisions made on behalf of the nation that are either not understood or not clearly explained to the population. This lack of communication within the recent Government plans to introduce an ecosystem services approach to the valuation of the environment and its resources are apparent in the results of this study. In this study the awareness of two key demographics were examined; those who are members of Environmental groups and those who were not. The findings of this research were that although the majority of individuals were aware of the importance and value of nature only those who had taken a greater interest in nature through membership of an environmental group were likely to have an awareness of the government terminology and policy being introduced.