Forms of capital and intrinsic values

The thrust of much work in ecological economics has been to develop better means of identifying and quantifying aspects of the environment which have instrumental or resource value. Less attention has been paid to quantifying environmental and social phenomena that have intrinsic value. Indeed, some economists would argue that intrinsic value does not exist. Yet many environmental issues arise in the first place because of strongly felt concern about the threat to intrinsic values and the need to make these sacred. In New Zealand, environmental legislation explicity requires that the state of intrinsically valued environmental capital be monitored and included in environmental decisions. A problem for those of us trying to develop ESSD indicators is that intrinsic values seem vague and ad hoc with no clear relation to other forms of capital and no unambiguous define criteria. This paper provides a clear defining criterion and propose a taxonomy of capital that incorporates both instrumental and intrinsic values.