Evaluation And Preference Heterogeneity Of Ecosystem Services In Sanjiang Plain Wetlands Based On Choice Experiments

The maintenance and protection of ecosystem services form the basis of sustainable development.The quantitative evaluation of the economic value of ecosystem services has become a current frontier topic in research of ecology.Wetland is one of the most important natural habitats and the most productive ecosystems on earth,which can provide a diverse array of important ecological functions and services.The quantitative analysis of its economic value will not only help ensure the reasonable decisions of development and utilization of natural resources,but also promote the advancement of human.Wetland ecosystem services and its economic evaluation are characterized by multi-factor feature,so that the preferences for them are multitudinous.Therefore,it is essential to capture preferences and willingness to pay that public hold for those ecosystem services,which contributes to understand the social point of view on wetland protection,and to ensure that social decision-making mechanism are scientific and reasonable between the various competing demands.Although many published studies to date have outlined the economic benefits provided by a given site,few have sought to explore the heterogeneity among the public.The purpose of this paper is to assist policy makers in formulating efficient and sustainable wetland management policies by providing the results of a valuation study on Sanjiang Plain Wetlands.A CE was employed to estimate the values that changes to ecosystem services of Sanjiang Plain Wetlands could provide to the public.We estimated partial values for wetland conservation,with a focus on wetland size,biodiversity,water conservation,and natural landscapes,among a myriad of wetland ecosystem services.A random parameter logit(RPL)model was employed to evaluate the ecosystem services in monetary units,and a latent class model(LCM)was employed to confirm and account for heterogeneity in the preferences of the public for various wetland ecosystem service functions.The results reveal that: the relative wetland ecosystem valuation results of each wetland attribute are as follows: water conservation > wetland area > biodiversity > natural landscape.The total WTP is RMB 1.461 billion per year in order to maintain the current wetland ecosystem services of Sanjiang Plain Wetlands,and RMB 9.858 billion per year to improve them.Furthermore,there is considerable preference heterogeneity across the public.Most of the respondents(68.78%)are particularly prefer to protect wetland resources(resources preferable),15.74% respondents show a special favor to landscape(landscape preferable),and the remaining respondents(15.48%)are sensitive to the price components(price-sensitive respondents).Of all the respondents,those females and those with higher education would prefer resource conservation,those with higher income and those who have traveled more times to Sanjiang Plain wetland would prefer landscape conservation,and those with lower education and income are more sensitive to the price.These results can aid in the design of socially optimal policies for sustainable management of wetlands and provide a theoretical basis for the development of environment-related policies.