Abstract
Relational values are values that arise from a relationship with nature, encompassing sense of place, feelings of well-being (mental and physical health), and cultural, community, or personal identities. With sharks, such values are formed by diverse groups that interact with these animals and their ecosystems, either physically or virtually, whether scientist, student, fisher, or media-consumer. Further, these user groups may overlap or conflict over management plans, media portrayals of sharks, and their conservation status. Although scientists have not explicitly aimed to assess relational values through sharks, qualitative studies of shark fishers, tourism operators, tourists, and the public, as well as historical and archaeological accounts, can be interpreted through an analytical lens to reveal values which can also be defined as relational. To this end, this review considers studies capturing relational values alongside those on economic value (increasingly, sharks’ value is appraised by their financial value by way of shark tourism) and the social and cultural roles of sharks. Based on these studies and the broader relational values literature, we then outline a workflow for how relational values can be leveraged in scientific inquiry, equitable resource management, and education. We conclude that via collaborative assessments of relational values, with implicit inclusion of all values from sharks and acknowledgement of their importance of to all parties involved in user conflicts, the relational values framework can lead to constructive dialogue on polarizing conservation and management issues. By illuminating shared values, and/or revealing dichotomies of values ascribed towards certain areas or objects, this framework can provide inroads to mediation, seeking to conserve or even restore relationships with nature and their derived values insomuch as is possible. This approach can yield unexpected knowledge, solutions, and compromises in an increasingly complex conservation landscape.
Highlights
Why Value Sharks?The human-nature relationship has been understood in a myriad of ways by various cultural and ethnic groups through time
To guide interpretation of the literature, we addressed the following set of questions: (1) How are relational values (RV) formed? (2) How are values formed with respect to sharks? (3) Do different shark “user groups” overlap or conflict in their “use” of sharks, and/or their perceptions of the value of sharks? (4) How can RVs be harnessed as a tool for shark research and conservation? (5) How can researchers and conservation/management practitioners conduct assessments that incorporate the RVs of sharks?
Valuations of services or benefits of natural resources is common practice in the policy and management space (Turner et al, 2003; Clifton et al, 2014; Luisetti et al, 2014; Arkema et al, 2015); recognizing that a value in itself might be meaningless, some researchers have applied post-hoc theoretical frameworks to explain either the underlying “drivers” of such elicited values, or how those values were formed by a person or group of people
Summary
The human-nature relationship has been understood in a myriad of ways by various cultural and ethnic groups through time. Plants, animals, and their ecosystems are acknowledged to play significant ecological roles, while playing a role in human societies – this latter role is more difficult to quantify and has typically been approached through an “ecosystem services” framing. This framing, which has gained momentum in academic and policy circles since its introduction in 2015 (Chan et al, 2016; Pascual et al, 2017), aims to improve upon prior value classifications which distinguished nature as something to be valued by humans, and in doing so, set humankind apart from what was thought of as “nature.” Given the intractability of present and future human society from the world’s ecosystems, the RV approach is a promising framework through which to interpret modern environmental problems which impact humans and non-humans alike
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