Valuing a Natura 2000 network site to inform land use options using a discrete choice experiment: An illustration from the Basque Country

Abstract

4One of the main problems that public institutions face in the management of protected areas, 5 such as the European Natura 2000 network, is determining how to design and implement 6 sustainable management plans that account for the wide range of marketed and non-7 marketed benefits they provide to society. This paper presents an application of a stated 8 preference valuation approach aimed at evaluating the social preferences of the population 9 of the Basque Country, Spain, for the key attributes of a regional Natura 2000 network site. 10 According to our results, individuals' willingness-to-pay (WTP) is higher for attributes 11associated with non-use values (native tree species and biodiversity conservation) than for 12 attributes associated with use values (agricultural development and commercial forestry). 13The paper concludes that management policies related to Natura 2000 network sites should 14 account for both for the importance of non-use values and the heterogeneity of the 15 population's preferences in order to minimize potential land use conflicts. 16

Economic Valuation of Health Services in the Basque Country

“…De los 149 individuos que eligieron la opción A en alguna o varias tarjetas, 60 fueron considerados como respuesta protesta lo que supone un 25,53% de la muestra total. Este porcentaje está en consonancia con los niveles de protesta encontrados, por ejemplo, en estudios de economía ambiental (Hoyos et al, 2012). Tras realizar todos los filtros anteriores, el total de encuestas con elecciones válidas frente a las tarjetas de elección es de 150 con un total de 1.800 observaciones.…”

Ecosystem services’ values and improved revenue collection for regional protected areas

“…The economic rationale behind investing in protected natural areas, including Natura 2000 596 sites, has given place to a participated debate in Europe (Hoyos et al, 2012). Since 597 management costs for the EU-wise Natura 2000 network are expected to increase 598 (Gantioler et al, 2014), motivating the financing of such investments represents a key 599 political issue.…”

“…Existing studies are very context-specific and have either sub-national or local scale 103 (Bastian, 2013;Gibson et al, 2004;Chuan-Zhong et al, 2004;Hoyos et al, 2012). Some 104 build on scaling-up of or extrapolating from available estimates (ten Brink et al, 2013).…”

Participative forest planning: How to obtain knowledge

“…The main threat to the areas in the Natura Network 2000 in Spain is forest fires (Velázquez et al, 2010) due to the lack of connection between biodiversity conservation and management based on objectives centered on economic activities (Hoyos et al, 2012). Some parts of the study area were declared protected areas in 2004, without a participation process or an explanation of the consequences for the local population.…”