Economics and the design of nature conservation policy: a case study of wild goose conservation in Scotland using choice experiments

Abstract

This paper applies the 'choice experiment' method to investigate public preferences over the design of wild goose conservation policy in Scotland. We argue that this method can shed useful light on the design of conservation policy, allowing policy-makers to take account of people's preferences, be they members of the general public (whose taxes often pay for conservation actions), local residents more directly affected by the policy, or visitors to wildlife areas. Preferences can be quantified in economic terms, so that the costs and benefits of different policy designs can be compared. In our study, we find that the general public, local residents and visitors have very different preferences for the conservation of geese. Whether geese are shot, the endangered status of geese, the spatial targeting of conservation and the size of the goose population all have impacts on the perceived benefits of conservation. In general, though, people are willing to pay for wild geese conservation

Investigating fishers’ preferences for the design of marine Payments for Environmental Services schemes

“…The additional information that CE can glean about respondent's preferences has led to many viewing CE as having an advantage over contingent valuation. Indeed, over the last decade, CE has been increasingly used to value the effects of changes in environmental attributes, and, more recently, different characteristics of policy design (Ruto & Garrod 2009;Hanley et al, 2003).…”

Investigating farmers' preferences for the design of agri-environment schemes: a choice experiment approach

“…Choice experiments are particularly well suited to measuring the marginal value of the attributes of a good or policy. A recent development in the method is to define attributes in terms of the different aspects of (environmental) policy design, rather than in terms of the characteristics of the environmental goods themselves (Hanley et al, 2003). This is the approach taken by this study.…”

Optimal management of wetlands: Quantifying trade‐offs between flood risks, recreation, and biodiversity conservation

“…[8] Previous choice experiment studies implemented in Europe have investigated the value of conserving biodiversity, either in terms of its components (e.g., a certain species) [see, e.g., Hanley et al, 2003;Horne and Petajisto, 2003;Bennett and Willis, 2007] or in terms of conserving biodiversity as a part of a wider ecosystem (e.g., wetland or forests) [see, e.g., Carlsson et al, 2003;Birol et al, 2006aBirol et al, , 2006bBirol and Cox, 2007]. In addition, Christie et al [2006] have used the method to estimate the relative importance of different aspects of biodiversity to the general public.…”