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Assessing visitors’ preferences for ecosystem features in a desert biodiversity hotspot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2017

CLAUDIA CERDA ,
JUAN PABLO FUENTES ,
CARMEN LUZ DE LA MAZA ,
CARLA LOUIT  and
ANA ARAOS
CLAUDIA CERDA*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Conservation of Nature, University of Chile. Santa Rosa 11315, La Pintana, Santiago de Chile, Chile
JUAN PABLO FUENTES
Affiliation:
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Conservation of Nature, University of Chile. Santa Rosa 11315, La Pintana, Santiago de Chile, Chile
CARMEN LUZ DE LA MAZA
Affiliation:
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Conservation of Nature, University of Chile. Santa Rosa 11315, La Pintana, Santiago de Chile, Chile
CARLA LOUIT
Affiliation:
Chilean Forest Corporation, Protected Areas Department, Coquimbo Region, Regimiento Arica 901, Coquimbo, Chile
ANA ARAOS
Affiliation:
Faculty of Forest Sciences and Conservation of Nature, University of Chile. Santa Rosa 11315, La Pintana, Santiago de Chile, Chile
*
*Correspondence: Dr Claudia Cerda email: [email protected]
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Summary

We estimated visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a variety of environmental attributes in a protected area of the Atacama Desert, a biodiversity hotspot in northern Chile. By using a choice experiment, WTP was estimated for the protection of the following attributes: animals (mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds), pollinating insects, plants (cacti and woody shrubs), soil quality and pristine landscapes. Visitors placed economic value on all of the attributes. The marginal mean WTP/visitor for the single levels of variation in the attributes ranged from US$4 (for supporting research on foxes) to US$26 (for maintaining soil quality) per visitor per month. These results can contribute to deciding which attributes are likely to be successful at raising funds for conservation. Our approach may be relevant to protected areas of the world with high conservation values, little funding and a lack of large, charismatic species.

Keywords

biodiversitywillingness to payAtacama Desertchoice experimentvisitors
Type
Non-Thematic Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 45 , Issue 1: Thematic section. Humans and Island Environments , March 2018 , pp. 75 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2017 

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Footnotes

Supplementary material can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892917000200

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