| Popis: |
Agrobiodiversity is associated with a range of important but poorly quantified public good ecosystem services, the conservation of which requires public support. With a view to determining the general public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for such conservation, 491 adult Peruvian residents were interviewed using a stated preference choice experiment (CE) to elicit the value they place on crop genetic resources conservation, using quinoa as a case study. Strong support for the conservation of quinoa diversity was revealed, in particular when conservation was framed in terms of conserving the national cultural identity or food security. Respondents were willing to donate most for quinoa conservation to minimise production losses and to maintain the crop’s existence. Findings demonstrate the significant and frequently ignored social welfare benefits associated with non-market agrobiodiversity-related public good ecosystem services, in this case equivalent to a third of market production values. Given the relatively modest costs of securing such ecosystem services, we calculated a conservative benefit-cost ratio of 1.7. |
