Is Biodiversity a Relevant Attribute for Assessing Natural Parks? Evidence from Cornalvo Natural Park in Spain

Abstract

The economic valuation of goods that do not have a market, like services offered by natural parks, provide a lot of information for the purpose of policy making on the conservation and protection of the natural environment, as well as for establishing park use strategies for potential park visitors. In this respect, this paper aims to analyse visitor preferences for Cornalvo Natural Park, which has been classed, since 1992, as a Site of Community Importance. To do this, we conducted an analysis adopting the choice experiment methodology to determine visitor preferences for a set of attributes. Additionally, we included a visitor preference heterogeneity analysis based on a mixed logit model in order to calculate individual willingness to pay with respect to a set of previously specified attributes. Finally, we also implemented the latent class methodology to define groups of individuals with similar characteristics. The information was gathered from visitor surveys conducted during 2019. The main results show that tourists had a high preference and willingness to pay for higher biodiversity levels and lower numbers of visitors, whereas the other attributes were less relevant. Additionally, we detected some degree of heterogeneity in willingness to pay by sex, age and income. Finally, Latent class analysis identified two visitor classes, determined primarily by age and income.

Understanding Visitors at an Urban Park by Profiling of Destination Attributes

“…Most of the attributes of parks are also found in general tourism destinations; however, the levels of these similar attributes were found to differ slightly. Nature and waterside attributes, such as the population of wildlife, biodiversity, and rivers and oceans, covered a wider range of resources [20,49,50]. The size, number, and types of convenience facilities, including the size and number of resting places, picnic areas, and visitor centers, were also dealt with in a variety of ways [49,51], and consisted of accessibility through various routes, for example, a good bus system and convenient transportation [12,26].…”

“…Nature and waterside attributes, such as the population of wildlife, biodiversity, and rivers and oceans, covered a wider range of resources [20,49,50]. The size, number, and types of convenience facilities, including the size and number of resting places, picnic areas, and visitor centers, were also dealt with in a variety of ways [49,51], and consisted of accessibility through various routes, for example, a good bus system and convenient transportation [12,26]. Additional attributes of general tourist attractions were the expected number of visitors, signposts, and displayed maps [15,49,52].…”

“…The size, number, and types of convenience facilities, including the size and number of resting places, picnic areas, and visitor centers, were also dealt with in a variety of ways [49,51], and consisted of accessibility through various routes, for example, a good bus system and convenient transportation [12,26]. Additional attributes of general tourist attractions were the expected number of visitors, signposts, and displayed maps [15,49,52]. Cultural and ecological experiences, such as special events/festivals, special exhibits, and bird watching opportunities, also emerged as attributes [11,12].…”

Assessing Impacts of Land Use/Land Cover Conversion on Changes in Ecosystem Services Value on the Loess Plateau, China

“…On the one hand, the conversion of 1468 ha of bare land, shrub grass and dry farmland to rivers and lakes resulted in an ESV increase of around $4.537 million; on the other hand, it should be noted that the expansion of 597 ha of built-up areas from dry farmland led to around $1 million in ESV reductions (Table 6). Considering the ecological importance and economic value of rivers and lakes, the effective protection and management of the lake in Linxia is urgently needed for policy-making, such as establishing a protected area [45,46] in order to avoid its shrinkage and occupation by other LULC types during the progress of urbanization. Another example is Shizuishan: its elasticity was 2.46 from 2010 to 2015 (Table 4).…”

Does Water Pollution Influence Willingness to Accept the Installation of a Mine Near a City? Case Study of an Open-Pit Lithium Mine

“…From the first applications of the choice experiment models in the field of transport and marketing [39], multiple applications have been developed, both for environmental assessment [40][41][42], and in the field of health economics [43,44] or the agrifood sector [45,46]. In this paper, this alternative is proposed to obtain an assessment of citizens' preferences regarding the installation of an open lithium mine in the surroundings of their city, since the relevance of the cost in environmental terms could imply a loss of well-being for the residents.…”