Valuing high-seas ecosystem conservation.

The high seas provide a variety of ecosystem services that benefit society. There have, however, been few attempts to quantify the human welfare impacts of changes to the delivery of these benefits. We assessed the values of several key ecosystem service benefits derived from protecting ecosystems in the high seas of the Flemish Cap through choice experiments conducted in Canada, Norway, and Scotland. Rather than solely eliciting public willingness to pay, we also explored the determinants of variance in the estimates of willingness to pay. We aimed to determine how much respondents were willing to pay for high-seas ecosystems conservation, which factors influence individuals' willingness to pay, and whether individuals in Canada had a higher willingness to pay relative to those living in Norway and Scotland. This latter point captures distance-decay effects. On average, the public placed positive value on conserving high-seas ecosystems and on developing economic activities related to the exploitation and exploration of marine resources, despite a lack of awareness and familiarity with these environments. Distance-decay effects on willingness to pay were not clear. Scots had the highest willingness to pay and the Norwegians the lowest willingness to pay for all attributes, with the only exception being willingness to pay for a large increase in new jobs, in which case Canadians' willingness to pay was higher than Scots'. The public's willingness to pay was influenced by sociodemographic characteristics and their perceptions of high-seas ecosystems. Our results provide evidence of the impacts of high-seas governance on human welfare and that improved governance could increase the value people place on high-seas ecosystems and the services they produce.

La alta mar proporciona una variedad de servicios ambientales que benefician a la sociedad. Sin embargo, ha habido pocos intentos por cuantificar los impactos al bienestar humano ocasionados por los cambios en la entrega de estos beneficios. Analizamos los valores de varios beneficios importantes de los servicios ambientales derivados de la protección al ecosistema en la alta mar del Cabo Flamenco por medio de experimentos de elección realizados en Canadá, Noruega y Escocia. En lugar de sólo suscitar la voluntad pública para pagar, también exploramos las determinantes de la varianza en las estimaciones de la voluntad para pagar. Nuestro objetivo fue determinar cuánto están dispuestos a pagar los respondientes por la conservación de los ecosistemas de alta mar, cuáles factores influyen sobre la voluntad para pagar de cada individuo y si los individuos en Canadá tenían una mayor voluntad para pagar que aquellos individuos que viven en Noruega y en Escocia. Este último punto captura los efectos de la descomposición por distancia. En promedio, el público le colocó un valor positivo a la conservación de los ecosistemas de alta mar y al desarrollo de actividades económicas relacionadas con la explotación y la exploración de los recursos marinos, a pesar de la falta de conocimiento y familiaridad con estos ambientes. Los efectos de la descomposición por distancia sobre la voluntad para pagar no estuvieron claros. Los escoceses tuvieron la mayor voluntad para pagar y los noruegos la menor voluntad para pagar por todos los atributos, siendo la única excepción la voluntad para pagar por un incremento de trabajos nuevos, en cuyo caso, la voluntad de los canadienses fue más alta que la de los escoceses. La voluntad del público para pagar estuvo influenciada por las características sociodemográficas y su percepción de los ecosistemas de alta mar. Nuestros resultados proporcionan una evidencia de los impactos que tiene la gestión de alta mar sobre el bienestar humano y que la gestión mejorada podría incrementar el valor que las personas le ponen a los ecosistemas de alta mar y a los servicios que producen.

Valuing inland blue space: A contingent valuation study of two large freshwater lakes.

Water bodies, or blue spaces, offer a range of health and well-being benefits. Many of these benefits occur in waterside spaces and do not require direct water contact. For example, non-water based physical activity (e.g. walking and running) and reduced stress as a result of viewing water from a distance. However, research dedicated to understanding the economic impact of changes to freshwater ecosystems predominantly focuses on water-based recreation and water quality. As a result, the economic impacts of changes to waterside space are often overlooked. This study used the contingent valuation method to determine public preference for the protection of lakeside quality, in terms of lake views, path quality and lakeside access, at two large freshwater lakes in Scotland (Loch Lomond and Loch Leven). The aim of the study was to estimate willingness to pay among a sample of adults in Scotland (n = 1056) for the protection of lakeside quality. Results indicate that the majority of respondents are willing to pay for the preservation of lakeside quality at each lake. Based upon the most conservative estimates obtained, mean willingness to pay for the protection of lakeside quality was £12.06 per household per year at Loch Lomond and £8.44 at Loch Leven. These findings provide valuable economic data and suggest that changes to waterside space at destination water bodies have nationally important economic impacts. Greater consideration of the economic impact of changes to lakeside space is recommended in order to develop cost-effective and socially optimal water resource management policies at large freshwater lakes.