Botzen, W.

Quantification of the benefits humans obtain from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) supports decision-makers by elucidating the link between the functioning of MPAs and human welfare. By conducting a residential household survey among residents in the Cayman Islands, this study assesses people’s willingness to pay for the marine environment from a perspective of cultural and recreational values. In this way the study offers a partial estimation of the total economic value of the marine environment of the Cayman Islands. Two valuation methods are applied: the contingent valuation and the choice modelling method.

Data from 384 household surveys shows that 63% of the respondents are willing to pay for additional management of the marine environment. The average amount that respondents are willing to pay per month for an improvement in a marine protection area ranges between is 12.69 CI$ and 16.55 CI$. The Cayman Islands has approximately 24,165 households, resulting in a range of the total yearly cultural and recreational value of the marine environment of between 3.7 million – 4.8 million CI$ for its residents.

The choice experiment shows that respondents especially value coral reefs and water quality as marine elements. Moreover, households who participate in fishing on average express a higher value for all attributes of marine environment covered in the experiment. The study also shows that residents from Cayman Brac value fish catch significantly more than the other sister islands and that no-take zones are less valued by older residents and people born on the Cayman Islands.

The conclusions from our study concerning public support for expansion of the MPA diverge the findings of an earlier study. While Richardson et al. (2013) concludes that levels of support range from 14% to 47% between the sister islands, our study measured much higher levels of public support ranging between 58% to 85%. Whilst Richardson et al. (2013) used public consultation, geared towards assessing people’s opinions on the intended expansion, the statement within this study was part of a larger survey and a simplification of the proposed changes presented during the public consultation. However, besides the simplification, within this study people might have been primed by previous questions in the survey, which may have led to respondents realizing what trade-offs need to be made in marine conservation.

Finally, this research reveals the presence of an anchoring/ordering effect in the valuation process. Showing respondents the choice experiment first is associated with a higher fraction of the respondents being willing to pay in the contingent valuation, and to respondents being willing to pay more in the contingent valuation, compared to respondents that were shown the contingent valuation question first. 

Since 10 October 2010 Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius (Statia) are part of the Netherlands. These three islands are referred to as the Caribbean Netherlands. The objective of this study is to assess the value that Dutch people as well as non-Dutch residents living in the Netherlands mainland assign to nature in the Caribbean Netherlands. This research applies two different stated preference techniques, the contingent valuation method (CVM) and choice experiments (CE), to determine the Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) of those living in the Netherlands for the conservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity in the Netherlands’ mainland and the Caribbean Netherlands.
Both methods provided new insights into the way people value the non-use values of nature in a national and local context. The surveys provided evidence for a nationalistic and community-based influence on valuation of nature. Both the CVM and the CE methods showed that locally-oriented Dutch citizens value nature in their own neighbourhood or country relatively higher than citizens with a global perspective or foreigners who live in the Netherlands and who place a lower value on improvement of nature in their own environment
Both surveys also showed that the values for nature both in and outside of the Netherlands depend heavily on the emotional mindset of the respondent. For example, individuals who are unconcerned about the state of nature in general value improvements of nature less than those who are concerned about nature. In the same fashion, consumer confidence proved to be a strong explanatory variable for value for nature protection: individuals with a high level of consumer confidence express a higher WTP for nature protection.
Finally, several methodological lessons were drawn from the surveys. These include the detection of ordering, anchoring and scoping effects, as well as the correlation between preference and payment uncertainty.
The estimated WTP amount for non-use values of nature in the Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands also allowed for the calculation of the aggregated values of both value domains. The non-adjusted aggregated annual amount of non-use value of nature in the Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands is estimated at €65 million and €34 million, respectively. However, by adjusting for preference and payment uncertainty of the respondent, the aggregated annual amount for the non-use value for nature improvements in the Netherlands is estimated at €34 million and for the Caribbean Netherlands at €18 million.