Benefits of meeting nutrient reduction targets for the Baltic Sea – a contingent valuation study in the nine coastal states

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an internationally coordinated contingent valuation study on the benefits of reducing marine eutrophication in the Baltic Sea according to current policy targets. With over 10,500 respondents from the nine coastal states around the sea, we examine public willingness to pay (WTP) for reduced eutrophication and its determinants. There are considerable differences in mean WTP between countries, with Swedes being willing to pay the most and Latvians the least. The aggregate annual WTP is approximately €3600 million. In addition, we find that countries are heterogeneous in terms of the effects of income, attitudes and familiarity on WTP. Income elasticities of WTP are below 1 for all countries, ranging between 0.1 and 0.5. Attitudes and personal experience of eutrophication are important determinants of WTP, but the specific effects differ between countries. The findings can be used in economic analyses for the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive and to justify additional eutrophication reduction measures in the Baltic Sea.

Ecosystem Services in the Baltic Sea

“…The importance of cultural ecosystem services, mainly recreation, has been studied by Ahtiainen et al (2013) and Lewis et al (2013). Some of these studies have been conducted in all Baltic Sea coastal countries (Ahtiainen et al 2013(Ahtiainen et al , 2014, providing comparable information for the whole region. More information on these studies can be found in Appendix 3.…”

“…Focus of these recent studies has mainly been on eutrophication (Kosenius 2010, Ahtiainen et al 2014) and oil spills (Tegeback & Hasselström 2012, Depellegrin & Blažauskas 2013. In the ecosystem services framework, Kulmala et al (2012) have studied the economic value of provisioning and recreational services of Baltic salmon, and Kosenius & Ollikainen (2012) the benefits from habitats and species, recreation, and food and raw materials.…”

Valuing the benefits of improved marine environmental quality under multiple stressors

“…While they found that no single valuation method could sufficiently account for the range of values, they note that it is possible to combine stated and revealed preference methods to supplement market value estimates. The transnational study of environmental valuation performed by Ahtiainen et al (2014) assessed stated public preferences using willingness to pay (WTP) for the management of eutrophication and related distributional effects. Another transnational study by Czajkowski et al (2015) estimated the change in the value of recreational benefits linked to changes in perceived water quality of the Baltic Sea.…”

The Role of Economics in Ecosystem Based Management: The Case of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive; First Lessons Learnt and Way Forward.

“…Both studies value water quality in nine Baltic Sea littoral countries using contingent valuation (Ahtiainen et al 2014) and travel cost (Czajkowski et al 2015). While Ahtiainen et al (2014) value changes in the objective level of water quality to society generally (i.e. the attainment of objective nutrient reduction targets), Czajkowski et al (2015) assess the change in use values of the ecosystem due to quality changes.…”

“…Thus, the value of improvements in the state of the Baltic according to this study is €1.2 billion annually, and this amount reflects the use value. The contingent valuation study by Ahtiainen et al (2014) establishes that the recreational value of improvement in state of the Baltic Sea is €3.6 billion annually. This estimate reflects both the use and non-use values of the environmental improvement, and thus includes wider range of values.…”