Establishing Baselines: Interest and Community Capacity for Valuing Earth Science Information

The report finds a significant gap between the ESI community's awareness of value assessment methods and their actual application, with only 25% of respondents interested in conducting ESI-specific valuations. While respondents recognize that these assessments can demonstrate impact to funders and policymakers, adoption is hindered by a lack of time, limited institutional incentives, and low perceived personal benefit. The report recommends that CONVEI and other stakeholders align valuation practices with institutional reporting structures, secure dedicated funding, and develop accessible tools to lower barriers to entry.

• There is a notable disconnect between familiarity with valuation methods and their application to Earth Science Information (ESI). While 83% of respondents are familiar with at least one value assessment method, only 25% of the ESI community are "interested or very interested in conducting ESI valuations."
• The primary barriers preventing the adoption of ESI value assessments are practical and institutional. Lack of time is the most significant hurdle, with 45% of the ESI community ranking it as their biggest barrier. Other major obstacles include limited training, a lack of demand from funders, and the perception that such work is "not part of my job."
• Motivations for conducting value assessments are primarily external and societal rather than personal or professional. Respondents are strongly driven by the desire to encourage decision-makers to use information (75%) and to demonstrate the importance of their work to policy decision-makers (67%), while internal motivators like promotion processes are viewed as far less compelling.
• There is a lack of institutional and funder support for ESI valuation. Most respondents reported not being encouraged by their employers (84%) or their funders (75.8%) to perform these assessments, leading to a situation where few are willing to invest their own time or funding into the practice.
• Practitioners within the value assessment community express a strong desire to move beyond purely economic metrics. Approximately 80% of this subset are interested in expanding the types of societal benefits measured to include conceptual values such as mental health, kinship, safety, and fairness.
• Effective ESI value assessments are viewed as requiring transdisciplinary collaboration and direct engagement with end users. 80% of the value assessment community considers transdisciplinary collaboration an essential component, and 85% agree that engagement with information beneficiaries is required.

APA

Mancilla, C., & Schon, M. B. (2025). Establishing Baselines: Interest and Community Capacity for Valuing Earth Science Information. WWF International. https://assets.worldwildlife.org/www-prd/documents/CONVEI_Community_and_Capacity_Report.pdf

Chicago

Mancilla, Cristina, and Mabel Baez Schon. Establishing Baselines: Interest and Community Capacity for Valuing Earth Science Information. WWF International, 2025. https://assets.worldwildlife.org/www-prd/documents/CONVEI_Community_and_Capacity_Report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mancilla |first1=Cristina |last2=Schon |first2=Mabel Baez |title=Establishing Baselines: Interest and Community Capacity for Valuing Earth Science Information |publisher=WWF International |date=June 2025 |url=https://assets.worldwildlife.org/www-prd/documents/CONVEI_Community_and_Capacity_Report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mancilla2025establishing, author = {Mancilla, Cristina and Schon, Mabel Baez}, title = {{Establishing Baselines: Interest and Community Capacity for Valuing Earth Science Information}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://assets.worldwildlife.org/www-prd/documents/CONVEI_Community_and_Capacity_Report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }