Payment vehicle as an instrument to elicit economic demand for conservation

Abstract

In this study we applied collective/mandatory and individual/voluntary payment vehicles to elicit public claim for governmental investments of urban coastal nature reserves; to verify the efficiency of either payment formats to recall protest voters declared under the other and sensitivity of respondents to reveal willingness to pay-WTP for maintenance and conservation of reserves. Results showed higher WTP bids and valuation under collective and mandatory payment format and supplied evidence that in developing countries people nurture expectancy on governmental actions and funding to conserve natural landscapes. The difference between the non-use values estimated under the two payment vehicles was USD 3.5 millions. For the purpose of this study, this indicates the amount claimed by local people for governmental investment in the coastal urban nature reserves. Ecological knowledge on the reserves have a positive effect on non-use values, underlining the role of information to increase people understanding on benefits supplied by nature reserve and to enable them to declared the utility attributed to these areas in economic terms.