Intangible Values of Protected Areas : What Are They ? Why Do They Matter ?

tangible values are, the reasons why people care deeply about protected areas ultimately have little or nothing to do with them. There is another arena of values, values whose benefits are difficult or impossible to quantify, but which lie at the heart of the protective impulse that drives the modern conservation movement. These intangible values (also referred to as nonmaterial values) include the intrinsic value of nature as well as “that which enriches the intellectual, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural and/or creative aspects of human existence and well being” (WCPA 2000). This issue of The George Wright Forum offers a look into the arena of intangible values. With the exception of this overview (a version of which was originally published in the IUCN journal Policy Matters), the material presented here is drawn entirely from The Full Value of Parks: From Economics to the Intangible, which the author co-edited with Allen D. Putney, who leads the Task Force on Cultural and Spiritual Values of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (Harmon and Putney 2003). The book—conceived for the Fifth World Parks Congress last September in South Africa—drew on a worldwide roster of authors to explore the topic. For the Forum, I have selected five chapters from the book to illustrate the range of intangible values. What are these values? The WCPA task force has classified eleven major kinds, all of which spring from particular qualities of protected areas (list adapted from Putney 2003):