Highlights•Relational and instrumental rationality coexist in human decision-
making.•Instrumental views on decision-making are embedded in relational …

A cornerstone of environmental policy is the debate over protecting nature for humans' sake
(instrumental values) or for nature's (intrinsic values)(1). We propose that focusing only on …

Societies often must choose between alternative uses of the natural environment. Should a
given wetland be preserved, or should the land be drained and converted to agricultural …

Two generations of conservationists and philosophers have built a strong case for intrinsic
values in nature; they are the basis of the normative postulates of conservation biology. I …

Value orientations used to explain or justify conservation have been rooted in arguments
about how much and in what context to emphasize the intrinsic versus instrumental value of …

Achieving the intertwined goals of justice and sustainability requires transformative changes
to meaningfully engage diverse perspectives. Therefore, scholars and policymakers need …

In the past 5 years, scholarly and policy attention to relational values, a concept that
articulates plural values of nature, has grown steadily. To date, there are no published …

Highlights•Caring for nature is a fundamental other-regarding relation.•Caring refers to
relational values constitutive for living of a truly human life.•Several approaches already …

Highlights•Biodiversity and ecosystem services are perceived differently by different
stakeholders.•Land management decisions require negotiating trade-offs among values and …

Existing frameworks for analysing interactions between social and natural systems (eg
Social-Ecological Systems framework, Ecosystem Services concept) do not sufficiently …