Willingness to Pay for Species Conservation Programs: Implications for National Park Funding

Abstract

National park management increasingly considers voluntary contributions from visitors as potentially important sources of private funding for species conservation. We investigate visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the protection of two species differing in degree of endangerment and popularity (alpine ibex and rock partridge) in Austria’s Hohe Tauern National Park. Our analysis reveals that visitors’ attitudes towards and preferences for nature conservation in general determine the WTP and not so much the species’ characteristics. The results suggest that conservation funding should be essentially public and only complemented by private funding because (i) potential (voluntary) contributions by visitors might not be sustainable in the long run, (ii) visitors’ WTP mirrors preferences for nature conservation in general rather than for specific species conservation programs, (iii) the collection of private contributions by a new system might be complicated, and (iv) many protected areas lack the resources and capacities for marketing and branding which are essential prerequisites for attracting funds in the first place.