Estimating welfare impacts where property rights are contested: methodological and policy implications
This study includes a discrete choice experiment with respondents living next to a new protected area in Madagascar
Abstract
Where rights over natural resources are contested, the effectiveness of conservation may be undermined and it can be difficult to estimate the welfare impacts of conservation restrictions on local people. In particular, researchers face the dilemma of estimating respondents’ Willingness To Pay (WTP) for rights to resources, or their Willingness To Accept (WTA) compensation for foregoing these rights.
We conducted a discrete choice experiment with respondents living next to a new protected area in Madagascar, using a split-sample design to administer both WTP and WTA formats, followed by debriefing interviews. We first examined the differences in response patterns to the formats and their performance in our study context. We also used the two formats to elicit respondents’ attitudes to conservation
This research was supported by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme
Citation
Rakotonarivo, S. et al. (2018) Estimating welfare impacts where property rights are contested: methodological and policy implications. Land Use Policy Volume 70, January 2018, Pages 71-83