Abstract
Forest ecosystems provide multiple services. In mountainous regions, protection against gravitational hazards is of particular importance. By preventing soil erosion and functioning as natural barriers and buffers, forests protect the population and infrastructure against avalanches and rock falls. The higher the forests' capacity to regulate and withstand external disturbances and adverse effects the higher the insurance value they provide. To operationalize the insurance value approach and to integrate it into climate change adaptation and disaster risk management, information about supply and demand of this ecosystem service is required. While assessing the capacity of forests to provide protection services has been a longstanding research focus, knowledge about the population's demand for insurance services provided by forests is still lacking. Our study analyzes the preferences of beneficiaries of such services. We conducted a choice experiment in several Swiss municipalities exposed to avalanches and rock falls, accounting for different spatial and institutional contexts. We found that households are willing to pay a significant amount for forest management that enhances forests' insurance services and reduces natural hazard risks. The results help to inform decision making in natural hazard management, and represent a further step towards operationalizing the insurance value of ecosystems.
Highlights
Climate change is a global phenomenon; its impacts, are largely felt at the regional to local scale (Duffy et al, 2019; Hsiang et al, 2017)
As apparent from column (1) in Table 3, the coefficients for the blue and white hazard zone are both positive and statistically significant. This suggests that households have a clear preference for forest management that reduces their individual avalanche and rock fall risk
Our analysis shows that the majority of households in our study re gions appreciates the insurance service provided by forests against grav itational natural hazards
Summary
Climate change is a global phenomenon; its impacts, are largely felt at the regional to local scale (Duffy et al, 2019; Hsiang et al, 2017). Studies from natural and social sciences analyzing the past and future nexus of climate change and socioeconomic development frequently highlight the uncertainties that originate from regional cli matic conditions and socioeconomic trends (Aerts et al, 2018; Roe et al, 2015; Schroeer and Tye, 2019). These uncertainties propagate when it comes to identifying effective climate change adaptation and disaster risk management strategies. While the appropriate composition of measures is location-dependent and subject to the particular hazard risk faced, the general aim is to increase society's resilience (Jongman, 2018), i.e., its capacity or ability to withstand, absorb or recover from the effects of hazardous events (Ciullo et al, 2017; Grafton et al, 2019)
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