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The paper reports the findings of an experimental survey conducted to determine the public's willingness to pay for the protection and conservation of the golden-shouldered parrot in Australia. This parrot is endemic to Australia and is one of Australia's most endangered birds. The paper examines the public's knowledge of this parrot and compares it with other endangered birds as well as common birds and the public's willingness to pay for conservation from a hypothetical allocation of money based on their current knowledge. We then examine how this allocation changes with increased knowledge about all species.Comparisons are made. HOW KNOWLEDGE AFFECTS PAYMENTTO CONSERVE AN ENDANGERED BIRD IntroductionThe public's knowledge of birds and other wildlife is important because such knowledge has the potential to influence the public's support for conservation (Wilson and Tisdell, in press).This includes both monetary and non-monetary support. This is especially so for species that are endangered and not well known by the public. When knowledge of wildlife is low, the economic and other values the public place on them is likely to be lower than otherwise. On the other hand when the current status and threats of species are better known, it enables the public to make more balanced decisions giving more support to species that are more in need than those that are common or less threatened.The aim of the paper is to examine how the public's knowledge affects their stated payment to conserve an endangered Australian bird, namely the golden-shouldered parrot. This parrot is one of Australia's most beautiful, but endangered and is restricted to a few localities in far north Queensland, Australia. There are several threats affecting this species and it is now estimated that the population of this bird is less than 2000 breeding birds in the wild (McNaughton, (2002). Although a recovery action plan has been in operation since the mid1990s to protect and conserve this species, it is also important to obtain the support (monetary and otherwise) of the public for its conservation. However, this is largely dependent on the knowledge and experience the public have about the species. It turns out that this endangered parrot is poorly known because of its restricted range and low publicity given to it (it is not a flagship species). As a result, this lack of knowledge could seriously jeopardize the support the public could potentially give for its conservation. This issue is examined in detail from many angles, both before and after provision of balanced information and after giving the participants an opportunity to see this endangered bird. Randall et al. (1974) have discussed the potential role information provision can have on value estimates using the CVM. Samples et al. (1986) have demonstrated that information disclosure (such as its current status, e.g. animal being endangered) has an impact on the participants' WTP allocations. Their work was conducted using separate sample groups. Our study is unique because we sh...

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