open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/75655

Citizens promote the conservation of flagship species more than ecosystem services in wetland restoration

英語

Monetary term

2017-10

Elsevier

Biological Conservation

214

1-5

Assessing the non-market value of biodiversity conservation is crucial to justify it economically. Using a choice experiment on wetland restoration in Hokkaido, northern Japan, we assessed the willingness of citizens to pay for different ecological statuses of a flagship species (absence, occasional occupancy, permanent occupancy, and breeding) and other principal conservation targets (establishment of a birdwatching station and wetland sizes). The results showed that the fundraising potential of the flagship species surpassed those of other conservation targets, irrespective of its ecological status, highlighting the superior publicity generated by charismatic species. We also showed that upgrading ecological status from occupancy to breeding did not result in additional financial support. Our study emphasizes that, although publicizing ecologically important statuses such as breeding is critical for successful conservation efforts, focusing much effort on flagship species rather than other conservation targets may be important to increase the economic value of conservation practices if such species are available.

学術雑誌論文

Accepted Manuscript

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

© 2017. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

0006-3207

AA00565296