Willingness-to-pay for Environmental Services Provided By Trees in Core and Fringe Areas of Benin City, Nigeria 1

Abstract

Economic valuation of environmental services has emerged as a new and more direct argument and incentive for protection of trees and sustenance of environmental quality. This study's aim was to estimate the monetary value for conservation of urban trees and environmental services in Benin City, Nigeria. A Contingent Valuation Method involving a survey of 350 residents was adopted for the study. Flooding and erosion control, scenic beauty, provision of shade and regulation of local temperature received positive rankings and high scores. Thus, an average of US$1.20/month, which yielded an aggregate value of US$1 200 000 to US$1 860 00, was the amount Benin City residents were willing to contribute towards the conservation of trees. This study identified profession, years of residency and indigenous knowledge of ES as significant predictors that can influence willingness-to-pay. The findings provided quantitative data to demonstrate the importance of conserving trees to town planners, forest managers, policy makers and the urban community.

Urban Green Spaces in Africa: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Initially concentrated on ecological conservation concerns, the research priorities refs. [55][56][57][58] have since shifted towards examining the various ecosystem services offered by urban vegetation [59][60][61][62][63]. Presently, there is a significant emphasis on investigating how these green spaces contribute to enhancing the public health and well-being of urban residents, indicating a noteworthy evolution in research trends within this field [64][65][66][67][68][69].…”

Forest-based bioeconomy in sub-Saharan Africa: Looking at benefits and burdens from a social sustainability standpoint

“…However, studies suggest that agroforestry PES schemes, for example, can be cost-effective and efficient in some farming systems in SSA (Benjamin and Sauer 2018), and that a certain willingness to pay for forests' ecosystem services exists. Benin residents, for example, were willing to pay for ecosystem services provided by peri-urban and urban trees (Arabomen et al 2019), while in Tanzania urban water users were willing to pay for watershed ecosystem services (Lopa et al 2012). In the latter case, interventions were mostly in the agroforestry sector; farmers adopted the practices primarily because of the monetary incentives and agricultural extension advice that is not available otherwise.…”

Women Volunteerism for Protecting Watershed Ecosystem in Langat Basin

“…However, according to Carlsson et al, (2010) female respondents present lower amount of money for ecological and fair-trade coffee. Economic rate for conservation of urban trees and environmental services in Benin City, Nigeria is US$1.20/month (Arabomena et al,. 2019).…”