Economic valuation of snake conservation in Greece

Abstract

Snakes are at the same time valuable and vulnerable because they offer many ecosystem services but are also threatened by humans, both directly through persecution and indirectly through habitat destruction. The implicit human fear of snakes often leads to negative attitudes and behaviors. Increasing support and collecting funds are therefore critical for their future survival. We carried out face-to-face interviews of Greek residents (n = 936) for implementing a multiple-bounded discrete choice approach to estimate willingness to pay (WTP), the effects of cognitions, emotions, and sociodemographics on WTP and infer support for snake conservation. A mean annual WTP of €28.0 per household was estimated, suggesting that about €26.6 million per year could be collected during a fundraising campaign. Survey participants had higher mutualism than domination wildlife value orientations and reported moderately low levels of attractiveness and moderately high levels of fear toward snakes. Participants more mutualism-oriented who found snakes more attractive were WTP a higher amount for their conservation than those less mutualism-oriented who found snakes less attractive. Young, females, with higher income, non-farmers, and pet owners were WTP a higher amount for the conservation of snake species than old, males, with lower income, farmers, and non-pet owners. Findings revealed that considerable funds could be collected for snake conservation, further suggesting pro-conservation attitudes among the participants. Further, findings revealed groups with high and low WTP and support of the animals. This information would be valuable if used for creating and implementing tailored education and outreach programs aimed at increasing public support for the protection and survival of snake populations.