Public attitudes and economic values for wetland preservation in New England

Abstract

Wetland preservation produces two types of economic value: use value and nonuse (existence) value. Previous studies have focused almost exclusively on use value, yet nonuse value is becoming increasingly important, in part because it is now considered by the courts in natural resource damage assessments. This study uses tile contingent valuation survey technique to estimate the total economic value of wetland preservation in New England. Respondents were willing to pay an average of between 74 and 80 dollars per year (over a five-year period) for wetlands providing flood protection, water supply, and water pollution control and between 81 and 96 dollars per year for wetlands containing rare species of plants. Aggregate value estimates ranged between 242 and 313 million dollars per year. Survey results suggest that most of tMs value is nonuse value--failure to consider nonuse values in decision making can therefore understate the value of preservation by a substantial margin.

Altruism and Willingness to Pay for Environmental Goods: A Contingent Valuation Study

“…If the individual answered "yes" ("no") to the first question, 2 Another representative motivation is "warm glow", that is, the moral satisfaction derived from the act of giving. Nunes and Schokkaert [10] investigated the influence of warm glow and succeeded in computing a "cold" WTP by excluding its effect.…”

“…The CV method traditionally has been used as a powerful tool to estimate the value of environmental resources [1], with considerable past research focused on wetlands (e.g., Stevens et al [2]; Blomquist and Whitehead [3]; Morrison et al [4]; Spash [5]; Hammitt et al [6]) 1 . In the CV approach, respondents are asked how much they would be willing to pay to protect the environmental good in question.…”

An adding-up test on contingent valuations of river and lake quality

“…"Chicken litter," which caused an overgrowth of algae, had polluted the lake and river system; the study estimated the WTP for a program to put alum on the water to reduce the algae. We chose this study because it represents the current state-of-the-art for CV and its scenarios were designed 6 The studies that examine adding-up on non-incremental parts include Wu (1993), De Zoysa (1995, Stevens et al (1995), White et al (1997), Macmillan and Duff (1998), AlvarezFarizo et al (1999), Christie (2001), Nunes and Schokkaert (2003), Powe and Bateman (2004), Veisten et al (2004), andBateman et al (2008). The test is failed in all of these studies except Nunes and Schokkaert, who pass their adding-up test when they use a factor analysis to account for warm glow, and not otherwise.…”

Floodwater utilisation values of wetland services – a case study in Northeastern China

“…Employing both a willingness-to-pay and an energy analysis, the value of an average acre of natural wetland in Louisiana is US$ 0.60-1.58 million per square kilometre (assuming an 8 % discount rate) to US$ 2.22-4.20 million per square kilometre (assuming a 3 % discount rate) (Costanza et al, 1989). Stevens et al (1995) used the contingent valuation survey technique to estimate the total economic value of wetland preservation in New England and the aggregate value was estimated to range between 242 and 313 million dollars per year. Costanza et al (1997) estimated the economic value of 17 ecosystem services (including gas regulation, climate regulation, disturbance regulation, water regulation, water supply, erosion control and sediment retention, soil formation, nutrient cycling, waste treatment, pollination, biological control, refugia, food production, raw material, genetic resources, recreation and culture) for 16 biomes of global ecosystem services, such as coastal regions, forest, wetlands, and cropland, with per year values ranging from US$ 16 trillion to as high as US$ 54 trillion.…”