Environmental valuation and knowledge production in Swedish marine and water management.

Abstract

This article explores how environmental valuation and knowledge production shape Swedish marine and water management through the case of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM). Tasked with conserving, restoring, and sustainably using aquatic resources following an Ecosystem Approach (EA), SwAM navigates complex interactions between these processes and the generation of actionable knowledge. Drawing on perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Environmental Ethics, the article explores how SwAM constructs, translates, and operationalizes values in its management strategy and associated action plans, with empirical focus on three cases: seals as obstacles in professional fisheries, the socio-economic value of recreational fishing and tourism, and the prospective value of aquaculture. The analysis shows that SwAM's interpretation of the EA renders ecological value inseparable from economic benefit, as ecological functions are translated into measurable, often monetary indicators in the pursuit of 'balance'. Scientific knowledge becomes a prerequisite for valuation but is shaped by a governance logic that prioritizes quantification, standardization, and economic utility. Rather than enabling a plurality of environmental values, this logic tends to privilege those that can be expressed in instrumental and monetizable terms. This raises critical questions about whether the notion of ecological balance, central to the EA, can be realized within a framework that equates environmental worth with economic outcomes. A shift toward non-anthropocentric governance would require not only rethinking valuation practices but also developing epistemologies capable of recognizing non-instrumental dimensions of nature's value.