Which is more Important, Ecological Conservation or Recreational Service? Evidence from a Choice Experiment in Wetland Nature Reserve Management

Abstract

To achieve the common goal of sustainable development of wetland ecotourism, the nature reserve managers face the challenge of balancing ecological protection and tourism demand. To make appropriate management strategies, more information is needed to understand how visitors evaluate the ecological and recreational attributes, as well as the willingness to pay and preferences. Choice experiment (CE) was employed to explore the trade-offs of visitors between ecological conservation and recreational services in Zhalong National Nature Reserve (ZNNR) in Northeast China, and the analysis of socioeconomic and attitudinal factors was added to reveal the preference heterogeneity. The results showed that biodiversity was the most highly valued attribute and increasing biodiversity or/and environmental education facilities were both valuable scenarios for wetland development. The differentiation of preferences is influenced by both socioeconomic and attitudinal factors including gender, income, age, work situation and environmentally responsible behavior. Two classes of visitors were divided through preference heterogeneity for each attribute, i.e. eco-friendly and price sensitive. These results could help to formulate reasonable policy implications and management strategies for wetland ecotourism. The proposed research framework clarifies the procedure and application of CE and provides a new perspective for trade-off problem in wetland nature reserve management.