Abstract
The research aim of this study is to estimate the values of porpoise conservation by eliciting individuals’ WTP using CVM. CVM is rather novel in China and most people are not familiar with paying for environmental goods or services. At the same time, many people do not have much knowledge of the YFPs. Hence, difficulties with the application of CVM are not beyond expectation. Nevertheless, it is still proved that CVM study has been successfully implemented. Facing the difficulty and exploring the reasons is necessary for improving future research.
In this study, the mean WTP in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Nanchang of China is compared in order to test the distance effects on the WTP for porpoise conservation, which is important to establish the market extent of porpoise conservation. When the total values of porpoise conservation are estimated, it is a key step to settle the market extent and to decide whose WTP should be taken into consideration when aggregating the values. Contrary to expectations, the WTP for porpoise conservation in China was not influenced by distance decay.
Furthermore, this study also compared the mean WTP between China and Germany. Until now, there are very few international comparisons of CVM studies. Most CVM studies concentrate on investigating people’s preferences for a certain environmental good in a local region or nationwide. YFPs are genetically unique in the world, living in the Yangtze River. It is very meaningful to know people’s preference for them outside China, because their conservation is not only important for Chinese people, but also for people all over the world. Germany is taken as an example. The final results indicate that the mean WTP in Germany is much higher than the mean WTP in China.
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Notes
- 1.
A forest easement program refers to a new forest management plan, which provides incentives for private forest landowners to manage their forests to meet certain goals, such as sustained timber harvest, permanent protection of forested areas, improving habitat for migratory forest songbirds of conservation concern and reducing the effects of deer browse on tree regeneration (Racevskis 2005).
- 2.
The substitute variable for the wetlands and contamination control programs was an estimate for acreage of wetlands in California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington (Pate and Loomis 1997).
- 3.
Biocentric attitude refers to an attitude of respect for nature. People, who hold biocentric attitude, tend to agree that it is important to protect the habitat for forest songbirds of conservation concern even if it means economic losses to forest-based industries (Racevskis 2005).
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Dong, Y. (2013). Discussion. In: Contingent Valuation of Yangtze Finless Porpoises in Poyang Lake, China. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2765-6_6
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