Offsetting legal deficits of native vegetation among Brazilian landholders: Effects on nature protection and socioeconomic development

The Brazilian native vegetation supports essential ecosystem services and biodiversity for the global society, while land use competition may intensify around the increasing needs for food, fibre and bioenergy. The Brazilian Forest Act of 2012 amplified a market-based mechanism for offsetting native vegetation deficits in private farmlands. This mechanism enables a large-scale trading system allowing landholders to offset their own deficits of native vegetation by purchasing certificates associated with a surplus of native vegetation from other landholders. This mechanism is an alternative for the more expensive restoration of native vegetation on own land. The launching of the mechanism now depends on specific regulations at state level, which may include geographical restrictions for offsetting deficits. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects in nature protection and socio-economic development of different offsetting implementation alternatives. Our findings suggest that in a business-as-usual scenario the offsetting mechanism may have little or no additional effects on protection of native vegetation, because most of the offsetting is likely to take place where native vegetation is already protected by prevailing legislations. We concluded that it is possible to maximise environmental and socio-economic returns from the offsetting mechanism without undermining productive land. This would be possible if regulations ensure additionality in nature protection while enabling a self-sustaining mechanism for income generation for small-scale family farmers in the poorest region of Brazil, protecting biodiversity and counteracting major trade-offs between ecosystem services.     

Determinants of cost-effectiveness in tender and offset programmes for Australian biodiversity conservation

Tender and offset programmes have been broadly applied for biodiversity conservation throughout Australia. This analysis identifies the relative importance of a range of factors that determine the overall cost-effectiveness of these programmes to guide future management, based on the perceptions of survey respondents with experience in their design and implementation. The novel method of maximum entropy regression for categorical response variables is used to analyse survey results. Key actions for tender programmes, in order of decreasing importance, are the: (a) provision of adequate funding, (b) development of flexible tender designs to aid organisational efficiency, (c) promotion of landholder competition, (d) identification of low-cost means of monitoring, and (e) establishment of strong relationships with landholders. In comparison, key actions for offset programmes, in decreasing order of importance, are the: (a) establishment of efficient organisational processes, (b) promotion of a short time lag between development and the restoration of ecological values, (c) employment of contracts of extended duration, (d) investment in landholder education and support, and (e) development of appropriate biophysical models.     

Public preferences for biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation: A choice experiment using ecosystem services indicators

Potential conflicts exist between biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation as trade-offs in multiple-use land management. This study aims to evaluate public preferences for biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation policy considering respondents’ uncertainty on their choice. We conducted a choice experiment using land-use scenarios in the rural Kushiro watershed in northern Japan. The results showed that the public strongly wish to avoid the extinction of endangered species in preference to climate-change mitigation in the form of carbon sequestration by increasing the area of managed forest. Knowledge of the site and the respondents’ awareness of the personal benefits associated with supporting and regulating services had a positive effect on their preference for conservation plans. Thus, decision-makers should be careful about how they provide ecological information for informed choices concerning ecosystem services tradeoffs. Suggesting targets with explicit indicators will affect public preferences, as well as the willingness of the public to pay for such measures. Furthermore, the elicited-choice probabilities approach is useful for revealing the distribution of relative preferences for incomplete scenarios, thus verifying the effectiveness of indicators introduced in the experiment.     

Consumers’ Preferences for Bread: Transgenic,Cisgenic, Organic or Pesticide‐free?

Consumers are apprehensive about transgenic technologies, so cisgenics, which limit gene transfers to sexually compatible organisms, have been suggested to address consumer concerns. We study consumer preferences for rye bread alternatives based on transgenic or cisgenic rye, grown conventionally or without the use of pesticides, relative to traditionally bred rye, grown with conventional or organic farming methods. Stated preference (SP) data from a choice experiment are combined with revealed preference (RP) data from market purchases from the same respondents. Results show that respondents prefer pesticide‐free production methods, and that while cisgenics is preferred over transgenics, the majority of respondents favour traditional breeding methods. The distribution in preferences suggests that some respondents prefer bread from cisgenic crops produced without pesticides over traditional crops produced using pesticides. Preferences for organic bread are stronger than for pesticide‐free products. From a policy perspective results suggest that excluding cisgenics from mandatory labeling in the EU, or including it in the voluntary non‐GM labelling in the US, would cause welfare losses for consumers.     

Public Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Forest Disease Control in the UK

Invasive pests and diseases in trees impose a range of costs on society related to reductions in timber values, impacts on recreational opportunities and effects on forest biodiversity. These costs need to be considered when assessing control options and developing public policy. We investigate the preferences and willingness to pay of the UK general public for a range of forest disease control measures using a choice experiment with a sample of 605 people. Respondents were relatively well informed about general tree disease‐related issues, such as causes and general measures to minimise the risk of disease spread. They were less knowledgeable about specific tree diseases, with Dutch elm disease and chalara ash dieback being the most well known. We find that disease control programmes in publicly‐owned forests and forests owned by charitable trusts are more likely to be supported by the public than equivalent control programmes in privately‐owned and/or commercial forests. The nature of scientific uncertainty about diseases does not affect peoples’ preferences for disease control measures significantly. Higher respondent income, greater ex‐ante knowledge about tree diseases, and more frequent visits to forests are correlated with greater willingness to support publicly‐funded tree disease control programmes in forests. Better knowledge about tree diseases also improves the clarity of respondents’ choices. We find a negative sentiment against some disease control measures, such as clear felling of a forest, and chemical or biocide spraying. We conclude that there is significant public support for part‐financing forest disease control policies in the UK, but that this is conditional on forest ownership and the type of control measures used.     

Willingness to contribute to the management of recreational quality on private lands in Finland

In Finland, privately owned nature areas are widely used for recreation due to open public access. However, since landowners are not obligated to take everyman's rights into consideration when making management decisions, the recreational quality of nature areas is not guaranteed for users. We examined whether individual recreationists on private lands would be willing purchase management actions from landowners that influence recreational quality. In addition to willingness to pay, we assessed willingness to contribute labor to such actions. The results demonstrated that about half of the recreationists who participated in our survey were willing to contribute labor and about 10% were willing to pay to direct the management of their typical recreation site on private lands. The mean willingness to pay was 92 euros per year and the mean willingness to contribute labor 3.5 days per year. A latent class regression model revealed that recreationists were not, however, completely homogeneous in their preferences for the actions or in their preferred contribution forms. On the basis of the results, there is moderate demand from recreationists for management to improve recreational quality and the potential for local landscape management arrangements that allow individual recreationists to contribute labor.     

A Comparison Between the Conventional Stated Preference Technique and an Inferred Valuation Approach

Contrary to conventional stated preference valuation techniques that employ a direct questioning approach, the inferred valuation method utilises indirect questioning where respondents are asked for their belief regarding others’ values for a good or service. In this study, using choice experiments, we compare the results obtained through the two valuation techniques for environmental features of the Burren landscape in western Ireland. Consistent with previous studies, stated values using the conventional approach are found to be significantly higher than those obtained through the inferred valuation approach. In particular, this study highlights the dissimilarities in relative preferences observed between the two landscape attributes (rocky limestone pavements and orchid‐rich grasslands) from the two questioning formats. While respondents were indifferent between the two habitats, they believed the ‘average other’ to be significantly more concerned about the conservation of the rocky limestone pavements. We attribute this divergence in preferences to be a consequence of additional normative motives perceived by respondents with regard to the conservation of orchid‐rich grasslands.     

Hog Producer Preferences for Marketing Contract Attributes

We use a stated preference instrument to elicit producer preferences for the attributes of risk-shifting hog marketing contracts and express acceptable producer trade-offs between contract attributes in a convenient dollar metric. Respondents value an increase in a window contract's price ceiling three to five times more than the same increase in the price floor, which suggests that hog producers dislike contracts that limit up-side price potential (limit positive skewness). The contractor's organizational form is also important. Cooperative forms are preferred by many respondents, particularly those who state that trust in the contractor is an important antecedent for any contractual relationship.     

A quantitative assessment of policy options for no net loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the European Union

The Biodiversity Strategy of the European Union includes a target to “ensure no-net-loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services by 2020”. Many policy options can be envisioned to achieve such a no-net-loss target, mainly acting on land use and land management. To assess the effectiveness of such policies at a European Union (EU) scale, we simulated land use changes and their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services indicators. We analysed a Business–as-Usual scenario, and three no-net-loss scenarios. The no-net-loss scenarios included measures that aim to reduce negative impacts of land use change on biodiversity and ecosystem services, by better implementation of existing biodiversity conservation measures (Scenario 1); and enhancement of existing measures (Scenario 2); and offsetting residual impacts on areas of high biodiversity and ecosystem service value (Scenario 3).Results show that none of the scenarios achieved overall no-net-loss. Compared to a Business-as-Usual scenario, the no-net-loss scenarios reduced the overall degree of land cover change at EU level, hence reducing impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services in large parts of the EU. The more comprehensive no-net-loss scenarios resulted in a gain of natural land cover. Moreover, natural areas became better connected, especially in peri-urban areas as a result of impact avoidance and offsetting. Richness of farmland bird species was projected to increase. Measures included in the no-net-loss scenarios had net positive effects on pollination and carbon sequestration, neutral effects on crop production, erosion prevention and flood regulation, and negative effects on nature-based recreation, compared to Business-as-Usual. In particular circumstances policy measures invoked displacement effects in land use allocation, reducing the effectiveness of the measures. This was primarily the case for flood regulation services throughout the EU.This study differentiates the potential effectiveness of a no-net-loss policy framework in three manners: (i) considering biodiversity and ecosystem services simultaneously; (ii) in the light of existing policies and land use pressures; and (iii) in different land use contexts across the EU. Taken together, we conclude that achieving no-net-loss for biodiversity and ecosystem services throughout the EU remains challenging given high land use demands. Nevertheless, in large parts of Europe there appears room for improvement for certain kinds of biodiversity and ecosystem services compared to Business-as-Usual, while still meeting other land use demands.     

Latent Class Analysis of Consumer Preferences for Wine in Tirana,Albania

This research aimed to determine wine attributes preferred by consumers in Tirana, Albania, and consumer segments based on preferences and sociodemographic factors. To accomplish these objectives, a conjoint choice experiment was designed. Data were analyzed with the latent class approach. Initial results showed a 5-class model fit best. Results indicated that younger people tend to prefer Italian wines over domestic wines, whereas some older consumers strongly prefer domestic, lower priced wines. Other domestic wine consumers sought higher prices, possibly indicating a niche demand for high-quality Albanian wines. The wine industry and its marketers might use this information to strategically market their wine to different groups. Overall, the majority of the respondents preferred Italian wines, but many might be persuaded toward domestic wine. Government assistance in standardizing the quality of wine and introducing new grape cultivars and efficient farming practices should aid long-term competitiveness of domestic wine in Albania.     

Scale and taste heterogeneity for forest biodiversity: Models of serial nonparticipation and their effects

Serial non-participation is a response behavior that is frequently found in stated choice experiments. One form of serial non-participation is that a varying number of respondents chooses always the zero-price or status quo alternative. The approaches used in the literature to deal with this problem vary from excluding those respondents to using applying latent class models to endogenously allow for different preference structures. However, latent class models also allow to assign respondents to a known class. In this paper we compare specifications of latent class models with and without restrictions. Additionally, we control for differences in the error variance across respondents by applying a scale-extended latent class model. The comparisons are designed to show whether respondents are allocated differently among classes and whether willingness to pay estimates are affected significantly. The data are from a choice experiment regarding management actions to enhance forest biodiversity. The data set is characterized by a high percentage of respondents who were not willing to pay; almost 50% of the respondents always chose the zero price alternative locating this sample rather at the top of the range of respondents who are not willing to pay.     

Resettlement preferences from landslide prone areas in Cameroon: Willingness to move,reasons to stay

Information about resettlement preferences is an important prerequisite for the success of voluntary resettlement as a disaster risk reduction strategy. Yet, even in conditions where individual preferences for resettlement are met, resettlement programs may fail. In this study, we confront individual preferences for resettlement with obstacles to resettlement in order to identify conditions for success and failure of voluntary resettlement. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups discussions are combined with a structured household survey and a discrete choice experiment to elicit individual resettlement preferences among farmers living in the landslide-prone Bamboutos caldera, in Cameroon. A mixed logit model and a latent class model are used to assess resettlement preferences and to investigate differences in preferences between socioeconomic groups. We find that, in general, people are willing to resettle away from landslide prone areas to safer areas, but that preferences for resettlement conditions vary between socioeconomic groups. Wealthier households show a greater willingness to resettle, especially to locations with improved road infrastructure, while poorer respondents are less willing to resettle, especially when this can negatively affect their social network. Beyond individual preferences, resettlement strongly depends on group behavior, historical events and trust in institutions. The stumbling blocks in the Bamboutos caldera include border disputes at the resettlement location, the high cost of resettlement and administrative challenges. With this case study, we demonstrate the added value of complementing a discrete choice experiment with qualitative research, as it leads to an integrated view of the resettlement situation of the affected population.     

Is Dry Aging for Pork Relevant to Consumers?

Introducing a new product is tricky because of potential problems with consumer acceptance. Dry aging is a technique that could make meat more tender, but at the expense of the color that would become darker. This technique is widely used for beef, but it could be useful in the pork industry since the increasing offer of lean meat has reduced its natural tenderness. We investigate Italian consumer preferences for dry aging applied to pork loin and the effect of information on consumer acceptance. A sample of 264 consumers was surveyed in June 2014 in Bologna, Italy, using a hypothetical rank-based conjoint analysis. Data were analyzed using a rank-ordered logit (ROL) approach. Results suggest that consumers preferred dry-aged pork loin to fresh pork loin. They also preferred products labeled with Italian origin and having low fat content. Factors affecting the intention to purchase dry-aged pork loin are age and information on dry aging.     

Efficiency of alternative property right allocations when farmers produce multiple environmental goods under the condition of economies of scope

The efficiency implications of different property right allocations when two environmental goods can be produced under the condition of economies of scope are analysed. It is assumed that an environmental agency – acting on behalf of the community – employs an auction-based mechanism to buy biodiversity services from farmers. However, farmers' production of biodiversity produces a second good as a by-product (e.g., mitigation of a river pollutant) that is valued by point-source emitters who are engaged in a pollution trading market. The efficiency implications of allocating the property right of the good, mitigation, to either the agency or farmers are analysed. If the agency owns the mitigation then the agency can sell mitigation to point-source emitters, offsetting the cost of biodiversity. If farmers own mitigation, then they sell it directly to point-source emitters. Assuming similar transaction costs associated with each property-right allocation, allocating the property right to farmers improves efficiency, as farmers take account of their private information to make profit-maximising decisions about the supply of biodiversity and mitigation; the agency would have trouble accessing this private information.     

Factors influencing farmers’ participation in contractual biodiversity conservation: a choice experiment with northern Australian pastoralists

Private landholders’ contributions to biodiversity conservation are critical in landscapes with insufficient formal conservation reserves, as is the case in Australia's tropical savannas. This study reports results from a discrete choice experiment conducted with pastoralists and graziers across northern Australia. The experiment was designed to explore the willingness of pastoralists and graziers to sign up to voluntary biodiversity conservation contracts. Understanding preferences for contractual attributes and preference heterogeneity were additional objectives. Such knowledge can increase effectiveness and efficiency of conservation programs by informing contract design, negotiation and administration. Random parameter logit modelling showed that of contract attributes, conservation requirement, stewardship payment, contract duration and flexibility in contract conditions significantly influenced choices. Land productivity was a significant factor as were attitudes. There was significant heterogeneity of preferences for all contract attributes. Models were run for best–worst scaling responses and the first preferences subset, with the latter model deemed superior. Latent class modelling distinguished four classes of decision‐makers and illustrated different decision heuristics. Conservation investment strategies, which offer farmers contract options that meet biodiversity requirements while accommodating heterogeneous attribute preferences, are likely to lead to increased participation rates. Complementary suasion efforts are also required which espouse the benefits that pastoralists derive from biodiversity and participation in voluntary conservation contracts.     

Are bilateral conservation policies for the Białowieża forest unattainable? Analysis of stated preferences of Polish and Belarusian public

Transboundary nature protected areas constitute a considerable proportion of all the existing spatial forms of biodiversity protection. One prominent example is the Białowieża Forest, shared by Poland and Belarus. There is a considerable literature on allocation of funds to preserving nature shared by several countries. Some of this literature assess the funding schemes and the impacts on biodiversity within the EU. A particular challenge for the Białowieża Forest is that the larger part of it is outside the EU border. There has been less research on the economic benefits that citizens attach to protected transboundary land nature on the other side of the border. We are trying to fill the gap by finding out and comparing preferences towards increased protection of domestic and foreign segments of the transboundary Białowieża Forest, stated by samples of Polish and Belarusian citizens. The results of a discrete choice experiment show an almost unilateral preference for nature conservation, passive protection of forest land, on the domestic side. Whilst Polish respondents on average are willing to pay for an increased area under protection, on their side of the border, most Belarusians seem to be satisfied with the status quo. Taken at face value, there is even an apparent mutual disutility derived from the perspective of co-financing bilateral passive protection programmes in the Białowieża Forest. By use of latent class analyses of responses, a group of the Polish sample willing to contribute to the transboundary conservation is identified and described, and compared against the non-cooperative groups on both sides of the border. The results can to some extent be explained by a strict border division with a high fence, by differences in welfare or by behavioural reasons. However, it cannot be ruled out that the affected populations simply do not perceive the Białowieża Forest as a binational public good.     

The regional economic effects of a reduction in carbon emissions

Concern about climate change has led to policy to reduce CO₂ emissions although it is likely that policy will have differential regional impacts. While regional impacts will be politically important, very little analysis of them has been carried out. This paper contributes to the analysis of this issue by building a small model involving two regions, incorporating the right to emit CO₂ as a factor of production with the level of permitted emissions set by the national government. We argue that there is likely to be pressure on governments to use other policies to offset the possible adverse regional economic consequences of the pollution‐reduction policy; we also consider a range of such policies. Using numerical simulation, we find that a 10 per cent reduction has relatively small but regionally differentiated economic effects. Standard fiscal policies are generally ineffective or counterproductive while labour market policies are more useful in offsetting the adverse effects.     

Preferences over the timing of forest resource use

The objective of this study is to evaluate preferences for time paths of outputs arising from alternative forest management practices. A discrete choice framework using logit and mixed logit models is used to evaluate stated choices by Public Advisory Committee members over attributes regarding inter-temporal forest management options. Results of the study indicate a relatively strong preference for physical sustainability, or even flow choices. However, respondents appear to be more accepting of uneven flows in recreation services than they are of uneven flows of timber harvests. Results also provide yet another illustration of a difference in implied rates of discount over the goods involved (i. e. timber versus recreation). The paper illustrates a mechanism for use in public involvement exercises that may identify inter-temporal preferences over forest management plans and strategies.     

Valuing Traits of Indigenous Cows in Central Ethiopia

This research aimed at identifying and estimating the relative weight assigned to the preferred traits of indigenous cow population in the most dominant crop–livestock mixed production system in Central Ethiopia. A choice experiment approach was employed to elicit the preferences and a random parameters logit model was used to estimate the relative importance of the preferred attributes of indigenous cows. The results show that fertility, disease resistance and calf vigour traits are at least as important as milk. The location the cows are brought from is also an important attribute for buyers. Results from the simulation on the influence of changes in attribute levels showed that fertility and disease resistance affect preferences more than other traits. The findings suggest that the smallholder community in this part of Ethiopia depends on semi‐subsistence agriculture and so livestock development interventions should focus on a multitude of reproductive and adaptive traits that stabilise the herd structure rather than focusing on traits that are only important for commercial purposes.