Attitudes and Preferences towards Soil-Based Ecosystem Services: How Do They Vary across Space?

Luisa Fernanda Eusse-Villa,Alex Mcbratney,Damien Field,Mara Thiene,Jürgen Meyerhoff,Cristiano Franceschinis

doi:10.3390/su13168722

Luisa Fernanda Eusse-Villa, Alex Mcbratney + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168722

Copy DOI

Abstract

Soil ecosystem services (ES) provide multiple benefits to human well-being, but the failure to appreciate them has led to soil degradation issues across the globe. Despite an increasing interest in the threats to soil resources, economic valuation in this context is limited. Importantly, most of the existing valuation studies do not account for the spatial distribution of benefits that soil ES provide to the population. In this study, we present the results of a choice experiment (CE) aimed at investigating spatial heterogeneity of attitudes and preferences towards soil conservation and soil ES. We explored spatial heterogeneity of both attitudes and welfare measures via GIS techniques. We found that citizens of the Veneto Region (Northeast Italy) generally have positive attitudes towards soil conservation. We also find positive willingness-to-pay (WTP) values for soil ES in most of the study area and a considerable degree of heterogeneity in the spatial taste distribution. Finally, our results suggest that respondents with pro-environmental attitudes display a higher WTP based on the geographic pattern of the distribution of WTP values and attitudinal scores across the area.

Highlights

The adoption of an ecosystem service (ES) approach to land and resource management has gained considerable traction globally in the last decade, due to the increased awareness of the importance of ES for human well-being [1,2]
The maps presented in this study provided evidence of generally positive attitudes towards conserving and improving soil condition and associated ecosystem services across the sampled municipalities (Figure A2)
The positive attitudes seem to be corroborated by the positive average WTP values retrieved in most municipalities, which suggest how householders would generally benefit from an improvement of the current level of the ecosystem services provided by soil (Figure A3)

Summary

Introduction

The adoption of an ecosystem service (ES) approach to land and resource management has gained considerable traction globally in the last decade, due to the increased awareness of the importance of ES for human well-being [1,2]. Most of the existing studies adopt cost-based market valuation methods, disregarding the non-use component of soil ES values and failing in fully capturing the benefits that soil ES provide to society. This affects the number of ES evaluated, which is still quite limited. Focusing only on a few ES limits the capability of valuation studies to explore trade-offs among different services Accounting for such trade-offs is crucial as Sustainability 2021, 13, 8722.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion