Step 2: Map stakeholder values

A key aspect of Seascapes is the protection and maintenance of the high biodiversity and socio-cultural and/or economic values that are inherent in such a region. Step 2 involves the collation of these values, and identification of the stakeholders who hold them. As a preliminary activity the program team developed a values framework (Skewes et al. 2017), which reviewed current thinking on values and valuation to form four categories:

Natural resource values (e.g. contribution to human well-being from food security, income, health)
Ecosystem structure and process values (e.g. biological diversity, threatened species)
Ecological regulatory values (e.g. hazard reduction, water regulation)
Socio-cultural values (e.g. spiritual, recreational and tourism importance)

Two-day workshops were then held in the six rural Districts within ENB and WNB (Masike-Liri and Peterson 2016, TNC 2016). Participants were invited to represent the Local Level Governments (LLGs) and communities within each District, and included a cross-section of stakeholders. First, participants carried out an exercise to score the relative contribution of local natural resource values to their well-being. Then they used printed maps (1:100,000 scale) focused on each District/LLG to locate and draw on the features of interest that provided the natural resources and other values to communities and other stakeholders. The maps were digitised into GIS to provide comprehensive, spatially-explicit information for each District/LLG in ENB and WNB.

Participants mapping features that provide values in Gazelle District, ENB (Photo: Nate Peterson)

The relative contribution of local natural resource values to well-being in Kokopo District, ENB