I have the good fortune to live, work and play in the Okanagan, the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx peoples. The land, water and climate together are the foundation for a beautiful, complex evolving web of relationships between a diversity of living things for which this is permanently or temporarily home.
Reflecting on the work I have done over the years, an apt description would be measuring, modeling and mobilizing valuations of ecosystem services. The concept of ecosystem services (see the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) captures one aspect of the relationships in the web of life we inhabit, those services that are of value to humans. Often times these service flows and how they are experienced by people differently are key drivers for choices made by humans. My hope is that by using some of the tools developed by economists – measuring and modeling – I can help identify the role that these services are contributing to human wellbeing and how the differences in the way they are experienced drives decisions that may not be in the best interest of our human society and the social ecological system we are part of. And I further hope that I can play a part in mobilizing this work in support of a more just and sustainable society.