Abstract
Protected areas are vital to sustain a number of ecosystem services. Yet, many protected areas are underfinanced and lack management effectiveness. Protected area certificates have been suggested as a way to resolve these problems. This instrument would allow land managers to certify an area if it meets certain conservation criteria. The certificates could then be sold on an international market, for example to companies and any consumers that are interested in environmental protection. Some pilot initiatives have been launched, yet little is known about future demand and features of protected area certificates. To fill this knowledge gap, we conduct a choice experiment with close to 400 long-distance tourists from Germany as a potential group of buyers. Our results indicate that the respondents have the highest willingness to pay for certificates that conserve sensitive ecosystems and in addition to this lead to poverty reduction and safeguard water resources. For other attributes such as a greenhouse gas reduction, the preferences are less significant. Overall, the results are rather homogenous irrespective of where the protected areas are located. These insights are important for the future design and marketing of protected area certificates.
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Notes
Additionality means that the carbon offsets should be used to promote carbon reduction projects that would not have happened if it were not for the financial support. In practice, it is very difficult to verify the additionality as the project holder will always have more information than the investors.
We had asked the respondents to answer some questions related to their last trip to Africa, Asia, or Latin America before.
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Acknowledgments
This research forms part of the project Certified Protected Areas (CERPA) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and valuable suggestions. Also, they would like to express their gratitude to the project colleagues, in particular the project coordinator Etti Winter who contributed to the early discussions and design of the survey.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Information text provided to the respondents before filling out the choice experiment
Imagine that you would book a trip again to the same destination as the last time.Footnote 2 Upon payment, you have the possibility to buy a “green certificate” from an independent environmental organization:
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When you buy a certificate, the organization guarantees to protect or restore an area the size of a football pitch in your country of destination (for example, if you go to Thailand, you would buy a certificate to protect an area in Thailand.)
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The area always consists in a sensitive ecosystem such as a rainforest, savannah, or wetland.
However, different certificates have different focus and prices. We will ask you to repeat the choice between the purchase of two different certificates or not to buy any certificate four times.
Appendix 2
Experimental design Each cell represents a choice set and the numbers indicate the attribute level.
Alternative 1 | Alternative 2 |
---|---|
0 1 1 0 2 2 2 | 1 0 0 1 3 3 3 |
1 1 0 1 2 0 1 | 0 0 1 0 3 1 2 |
0 0 0 1 2 1 3 | 1 1 1 0 3 2 0 |
1 1 1 0 1 0 3 | 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 |
1 0 0 1 1 3 2 | 0 1 1 0 2 0 3 |
1 0 1 0 2 3 0 | 0 1 0 1 3 0 1 |
1 1 1 1 3 1 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 |
1 0 0 0 3 2 1 | 0 1 1 1 0 3 2 |
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 |
1 0 1 1 0 2 3 | 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 |
0 1 0 0 3 3 3 | 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 |
0 1 0 1 1 2 0 | 1 0 1 0 2 3 1 |
0 0 1 1 3 0 2 | 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 |
0 0 1 0 1 1 1 | 1 1 0 1 2 2 2 |
1 1 0 0 0 1 2 | 0 0 1 1 1 2 3 |
0 1 1 1 0 3 1 | 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 |
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Segerstedt, A., Grote, U. Protected Area Certificates: Gaining Ground for Better Ecosystem Protection?. Environmental Management 55, 1418–1432 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0476-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0476-2