TY - JOUR
T1 - Willingness to pay for nature conservation policies in state-owned forests: An austrian case study
AU - Getzner, M.
AU - Meyerhoff, J.
AU - Schläpfer, F.
N1 - Cited By :7
Export Date: 7 July 2021
Correspondence Address: Getzner, M.; Department of Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, Austria; email: michael.getzner@tuwien.ac.at
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - The Austrian Federal Forests (öBf), the Republic of Austria's state-owned company, manages 15% of the Austrian forests; about 50% of the land is devoted to nature conservation. This paper presents the results of a representative survey of Austrian households ascertaining the acceptance of, preferences regarding, and willingness to pay for three different management scenarios. One program would increase commercial forestry, while two other programs would significantly enhance biodiversity conservation. The majority of respondents considers it an important task of state-owned forests to enhance biodiversity conservation. The study reveals that the preferences of the respondents are very heterogeneous. For instance, in addition to socio-economic characteristics, the willingness to pay for nature conservation depends on personal experiences and perceptions (e.g., whether respondents feel anxious in forests), political views (e.g., the acceptance of strict legal protection of natural resources), and opinions on forest policy issues (e.g., preferences regarding privatization of public land). The study places special emphasis on the thorough description and presentation of the scenarios to the respondents and is one of the first European studies to elicit opinions on forest policies regarding public land in an environmental valuation framework. © 2018 by the authors.
AB - The Austrian Federal Forests (öBf), the Republic of Austria's state-owned company, manages 15% of the Austrian forests; about 50% of the land is devoted to nature conservation. This paper presents the results of a representative survey of Austrian households ascertaining the acceptance of, preferences regarding, and willingness to pay for three different management scenarios. One program would increase commercial forestry, while two other programs would significantly enhance biodiversity conservation. The majority of respondents considers it an important task of state-owned forests to enhance biodiversity conservation. The study reveals that the preferences of the respondents are very heterogeneous. For instance, in addition to socio-economic characteristics, the willingness to pay for nature conservation depends on personal experiences and perceptions (e.g., whether respondents feel anxious in forests), political views (e.g., the acceptance of strict legal protection of natural resources), and opinions on forest policy issues (e.g., preferences regarding privatization of public land). The study places special emphasis on the thorough description and presentation of the scenarios to the respondents and is one of the first European studies to elicit opinions on forest policies regarding public land in an environmental valuation framework. © 2018 by the authors.
U2 - 10.3390/f9090537
DO - 10.3390/f9090537
M3 - Article
SN - 1999-4907
VL - 9
JO - Forests
JF - Forests
IS - 9
M1 - 537
ER -
