Different cultures, different values: The role of cultural variation in public’s WTP for marine species conservation

Ressurreição, Adriana; Gibbons, James; Kaiser, Michel; Dentinho, Tomaz Ponce; Zarzycki, Tomasz; Bentley, Charlotte; Austen, Melanie; Burdon, Daryl; Atkins, Jonathan; Santos, Ricardo S.; Edwards-Jones, Gareth

Abstract

Understanding the cultural variation in public preference for marine species is a necessary pre-requisite if conservation objectives are to include societal preferences in addition to scientific considerations. We report the results of a contingent study undertaken at three case-study sites: Azores islands (Portugal), Gulf of Gdansk (Poland) and Isles of Scilly (UK). The study considered species richness of five specific marine taxa (mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates and algae) as proxies of marine biodiversity and the aim of analysis was to estimate from a multi-site perspective public’s willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid increased levels of species loss (reduction of species richness) for different marine taxa. Results, based on 1502 face-to-face interviews, showed that income, education and environmental awareness of the respondents were significant predictors of WTP for marine species conservation. Results also indicated that respondents in each of the European locations had different preferences for marine taxa. In the Azores, although mammals and fish were valued highly, small differences occurred in the WTP among different taxa. Respondents in the Isles of Scilly put a relatively low value on fish while algae and marine mammals were highly valued. In Gdansk, respondents defined a clear order of preference for marine mammals>fish>birds>invertebrates and algae. These findings suggested that cultural differences may be important drivers of valuation and undermines the commonly held premise that charismatic/likeable taxa consistently have a disproportionately strong influence on WTP for biodiversity conservation. We conclude that conservation policy must take account of cultural diversity alongside biological diversity.

Citation

Ressurreição, A., Gibbons, J., Kaiser, M., Dentinho, T. P., Zarzycki, T., Bentley, C., …Edwards-Jones, G. (2012). Different cultures, different values: The role of cultural variation in public’s WTP for marine species conservation. Biological Conservation, 145(1), 148-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.10.026

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 31, 2011
• Online Publication Date: Nov 21, 2011
• Publication Date: 2012-01
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Biological conservation
• Print ISSN: 0006-3207
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 145
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 148-159
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.10.026
• Keywords: Marine biodiversity; Multi-site study; Contingent valuation; Willingness to pay; Biodiversity loss; Payment card
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/465089
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320711003958
• Additional Information: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Biological conservation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Biological conservation, v.145, issue 1 (2012) DOI10.1016/j.biocon.2011.10.026. NOTE: title of authors' version is: Different cultures, different values: the role of cultural variation in public's willingness to pay for marine species conservation.