Economic Valuation of Mountain Landscapes and Ecosystems: A Meta-Analysis of Case Studies

Abstract

The paper is focused on the value of the European mountain landscape/ecosystem and evaluates the impact of agriculture and agricultural policy on the value of this public good. Based on the meta-analysis of 22 landscape/ecosystem valuation studies, it was found that the average value of the European mountain landscape/ecosystem is 3,068 EUR per hectare per year, and 3.91 EUR per person per day. However, there are regions with a significantly higher value-Tatra in Poland and Alpujarran in Spain. The value is influenced by the position of agriculture in the national economy. Higher values of the mountain landscape/ ecosystem were achieved in countries where the contribution of agriculture to the gross value added is above average. On the other hand, there is no significant relationship between the proportion of farming in the LFA and the value of the mountain landscape/ecosystem. Public support was found to be insufficient to cover the cost of landscape services performed by farmers.

Research of The Uludağ National Park in Terms of Resource Economy

“…Various mountain ecosystem areas support a wide variety of ecosystem services such as energy, water, food, shelter, medical reserves and cultural ecosystem services, and are sources of human needs (Huber et al, 2013). With its regulatory function, it plays a role in carbon sequestration and maintaining the continuity of the hydrological cycle (Kroupova et al, 2016). In addition, these areas provide an opportunity to generate income through tourism carried out by people who visit to participate in cultural ecosystem services.…”

Public Preferences for Pasture Landscapes and the Role of Scale Heterogeneity

“…These preferences have been analyzed by numerous studies, reviews are e.g. given by Záková Kroupová et al (2016) and van Zanten et al (2014). Besides revealed preference methods like hedonic regression (Walls, Kousky and Chu 2015), the research in this field heavily relies on the usage of stated preference methods.…”