A laboratory scale method was used to produce pellets from cassia tora stems with pelletizing temperature conditions of 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 and 120oC under a pressure of 50, 70, 90,120 and 140 MPa. A total of 30 pellets were produced under each condition of production. The physical and chemical properties of the pellets were investigated. The pellets produced under 75oC and 90 MPa were found to have durability 90 %. A Bulk density range of 617 to 619 kgm-3 was measured for all the produced pellets irrespective of production conditions. The pellets produced in the range of 50 MPa/30oC-140 MPa/120oC were found to have a moisture content ranging between 7.18- 9.6 %. Ash content of 4.2 % was achieved using both Thermogravimetry (TGA) and CEN/TC 335 standard. The gross calorific value of the pellet was determined to be in the range of 17.89-18.1 MJ/kg. TGA results also indicates low moisture and ash content and the process of pyrolysis occurred at 137-550oC at 10oC/min heating rate. The activation energies and reactivities determined from TG/DTG curve are 72.01, 106.81 and 88.67 kJ/mol and 1.76 E+19, 5.1 E+06 and 3.92 E+05 for step I, II and III respectively. A water boiling experiment was carried out to evaluate the cooking efficiency of the pellets compared to fuel wood, kerosene and liquefied natural gas (LPG). The energy intensities and energy cost of 1.2, 0.78, 0.56 and 1.36 kJ/g of water and 0.2, 0.7, 0.4 and 0.2 Nigerian Naira (N) were calculated for fuel wood, kerosene, LPG and the pellets respectively. vii An economic analysis of fuel pellet production from Cassia tora stems has been carried out for conditions found in Kano state, Nigeria. The total production cost, for a base case scenario of 5t/h and operating for 270 days a year, is £4/tonne (1094.5 Naira/ton) of pellets. A ‘Willingness to pay’ analysis was also performed using the Contingent Valuation Technique. A structured contingent valuation questionnaire was administered to 420 randomly selected households in the Kano metropolis and Chi-square analysis was conducted on the data collected. The results of the analysis, at a 5 percent (0.05) confidence level, showed that p-values were less than 0.05 (0.05>p) for all the responded variables. It is confirmed, from the analysis, that an inadequate supply of energy is a statistically significant problem in Kano state and households significantly use fuel wood for domestic energy applications. The results also indicated the willingness of households to switch to a new product and were willing to pay a mean amount of £5 (1361.5 Naira) for a ton of the fuel pellets. Properties of the cassia tora pellets were found to be comparable with other biomass fuel pellets. It is recommended that policy and investment should be geared towards fuel pellet production in Nigeria, to address problems of energy poverty and environmental deterioration, and provide a means for further economic development.

The objective of the thesis is - with the aid of cost benefit analysis - evaluate economic impacts of planned amendment to Regulation of the Government No. 148/2006 Coll. On Health Protection from Adverse Effects of Noise and Vibration, namely based on the case of specific road track. Amendment to Regulation is aimed at making existing noise limits softer (to increase them) and thus to bring about savings in investment cost connected with anti-noise measures. The thesis intends to use a single case study to find out whether benefits resulting from price reduction in the process of road construction are higher than costs in the form of decrease of welfare caused by the higher noise exposition; alternatively at what period savings in costs connected with road construction equal to decrease in welfare (savings in costs are one-off, while increase in noise exposition and related drop in welfare are long-term). Estimated changes in welfare are based on analysis of secondary sources -- first of all on the study of traffic externalities in the Czech republic conducted by contingent valuation method. The actual core of the thesis is cost benefit analysis. Attention is paid also to broader discussion on experience in providing exceptions from noise limits in the Czech Republic.

The first essay developed a respondent model of Bayesian updating for a double-bound dichotomous choice (DB-DC) contingent valuation methodology. I demonstrated by way of data simulations that current DB-DC identifications of true willingness-to-pay (WTP) may often fail given this respondent Bayesian updating context. Further simulations demonstrated that a simple extension of current DB-DC identifications derived explicitly from the Bayesian updating behavioral model can correct for much of the WTP bias. Additional results provided caution to viewing respondents as acting strategically toward the second bid. Finally, an empirical application confirmed the simulation outcomes. The second essay applied a hedonic property value model to a unique water quality (WQ) dataset for a year-round, urban, and coastal housing market in South Florida, and found evidence that various WQ measures affect waterfront housing prices in this setting. However, the results indicated that this relationship is not consistent across any of the six particular WQ variables used, and is furthermore dependent upon the specific descriptive statistic employed to represent the WQ measure in the empirical analysis. These results continue to underscore the need to better understand both the WQ measure and its statistical form homebuyers use in making their purchase decision. The third essay addressed a limitation to existing hurricane evacuation modeling aspects by developing a dynamic model of hurricane evacuation behavior. A household’s evacuation decision was framed as an optimal stopping problem where every potential evacuation time period prior to the actual hurricane landfall, the household’s optimal choice is to either evacuate, or to wait one more time period for a revised hurricane forecast. A hypothetical two-period model of evacuation and a realistic multi-period model of evacuation that incorporates actual forecast and evacuation cost data for my designated Gulf of Mexico region were developed for the dynamic analysis. Results from the multi-period model were calibrated with existing evacuation timing data from a number of hurricanes. Given the calibrated dynamic framework, a number of policy questions that plausibly affect the timing of household evacuations were analyzed, and a deeper understanding of existing empirical outcomes in regard to the timing of the evacuation decision was achieved.

Background It is believed that the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) will bring about unprecedented change to the world, ultimately having such a deep impact that some argue it may change human life at its core. It is believed that many organisations will not survive the radical disruption that will ensue. On the contrary, some authors have argued that the 4IR will bring about many benefits and opportunities for organisations, as with previous revolutions, provided it is managed effectively by business leaders. Rationale for the research study There is a growing consensus that existing leadership styles and management practices may not be suitable for organisational performance for the 4IR. It has, therefore, been suggested that different theories, models or approaches to leadership will be required if organisations are to remain competitive and sustainably successful in a business context that will look very different to what leaders have been accustomed to. It is argued here that Leadership 4.0 and innovative management practices, may have merit in this context. Aim of the study This present study was an exploratory attempt to investigate the relationship between Leadership 4.0, innovative management practices and organisational performance capabilities for the 4IR. For the purposes of this study, 1) a range of leadership theories/models/approaches/styles, including Transactional Leadership, Transformational Leadership and Leadership 4.0; 2) innovative management practices, including human resource management, organising and information sharing, risk management and stakeholder management as they compare to the old and new economy; and 3) organisational performance capabilities, including human capital, digital risk management and business model value creation were investigated. Research Design, Sampling and realised sample An exploratory research design was followed, utilising a mixed method approach. A crosssectional approach was taken to data collection, with a composite questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study utilised to collect data. A realised sample of n=61 respondents, mainly 4 from local, privately owned, knowledge-intensive organisations was obtained using a convenience sampling approach. Statistical analyses Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were utilised to estimate the relationships among the abovementioned constructs. Mediation analyses utilising the PROCESS macro was employed to test whether the relationship between Leadership 4.0 and organisational performance capabilities was mediated through innovative management practices. Results Statistically significant positive relationships were found between Leadership 4.0, Innovative Management Practices and Organisational Performance Capabilities. A regression model indicated that Leadership styles statistically significantly predicted the most variance in Organisational Performance Capabilities. Results further determined that Transactional Leadership explained a unique variance in risk management and digital risk management. Lastly, the test for mediation indicated that innovative management practices partially mediated the relationship between Leadership 4.0 and organisational performance capabilities. Findings: Findings from the results supported various discussions and studies in the literature and in practice that leadership, specifically Leadership 4.0, is an important element to navigating the uncertainties and challenges presented by the 4IR. Further evidence was also found in support of contingent leadership theories. Managerial Implications The findings of the present research study holds a practical implication for organisations in that the findings support the literature suggesting that leadership is a key element in organisational performance capabilities, specifically for survival and sustainability for the 4IR. The findings further contributes to a growing body of knowledge surrounding the 4IR, leadership, innovative management practices and organisational performance fields of research.

External beam radiation therapy is often used as a form of treatment for individuals diagnosed with cancer. However, because staying completely still can often be difficult for children, sedation is often used daily to remedy the need for stillness. In this document, we introduce the development, implementation, and testing of a technology designed to teach healthy children to self-monitor and control their movements. This technology monitored a child's body movement and created a continuous feedback loop, playing a preferred movie based on the amount of body movement observed. Study 1 compares the amount of body movement observed when children were instructed to remain still (instructions alone) to access to a movie contingent on maintained low rates of movement (contingent movie). Study 2 compares the amount of body movement observed in the instructions alone condition with two other conditions: non-contingent access to a movie (non-contingent movie) and contingent movie. Study 3 compares the amount of body movement observed in the instructions alone condition to the contingent movie condition over an extended period of time. Lastly, Study 4 compares the amount of body movement observed when children have previously been taught to stay still using the technology described above across various days throughout various conditions. Generally, we found three things: a) instructions alone were insufficient to produce the level of control over motion required; b) some control over motion was established in the non-contingent movie condition relative to the instructions alone condition; and c) the combination of movies and feedback contingent on movement was necessary to gain the level of control over body motion necessary to adhere to the medical protocol.

This study uses the double-bounded bid elicitation format to estimate how much households in the Khalong-la-Lithunya wetland area (KWA) would be WTP (on top of monthly water bills) for wetland resource conservation, and test whether WTP significantly varies with the institution responsible for its conservation management. KWA was purposely selected on account of the critically important role it plays in securing water provisioning ecosystem services; a role that is currently threatened by proximate and ultimate factors hypothesised to be driven by its unrecognised economic value. WTP was thus elicited and compared when the governance institution was (i) the Ministry of Natural Resources, and (ii) a private environmental conservation agency that is currently active in Lesotho i.e. the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC). Purposive and simple random sampling methods were used to collect survey data from 204 households. Results show that respondents have high levels of factual knowledge about the threats to the sustainability of KWA. They also have attitudes, opinions, and perceptions that are receptive to a policy that improves the status quo. Mean WTP was M78.80 per household per month (UB M92.89 and LB M38.21) when the Ministry of Natural Resources was responsible for conservation management in KWA (equivalent to M 0.011 per litre or M0.21 per 20 litre jerry can), and M83.09 per household per month (UB M98.00 and LB M32.94) when TRC was responsible for conservation management in KWA (equivalent to M0.011 per litre or M0.22 per 20 litre jerry can). The null hypothesis of equality of the two mean WTP values was rejected at the 1 % level (t= 4.34 and p = 0.000), suggesting that institution responsible for conservation management in KWA significantly influences households' WTP. Double bounded models differentiated by institution responsible for conservation management in KWA were used to econometrically determine factors that influence households' WTP. Results show that WTP was positively related to the following variables: income, age, education, whether households had experienced seasonal water shortages, knowledge of health risks associated with water shortages, and gender (males had higher WTP). WTP was found to be negatively related to household size (the more the household members, the lower the WTP). These results were consistent with prior expectation and literature. Considering, also, that this study further used secondary sources to estimate that households, on average, spend about M300 per month on water (equivalent to M0.04 per litre or 0.80 per 20 litre jerry can), three key recommendations follow. First, subject to extensive stakeholder consultations, the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) of Lesotho should consider adding to the regular charge a resource conservation tax amounting to at least M0.011 per litre of water delivered to customers, i.e. instead of charging M0.04 per litre of water delivered, WASA should charge customers at least M0.051 per litre of water delivered. Second, WASA should consider instituting a policy that isolates the conservation charge from the M0.51 per litre, and explicitly invest it in mitigating the resource conservation challenges in KWA (i.e. the charge should be used to support activities that secure the sustainable water provisioning ecosystem services from KWA). Finally, WASA should consider engaging TRC directly in converting the proceeds from the conservation charge to tangible resource conservation outcomes in KWA, given that households expressed higher WTP when TRC was responsible for its conservation management. / Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MSc (Agric) / Unrestricted

Rund 30 Jahre Forschung verweisen auf die Rolle organisationaler Sozialisationstaktiken für die Entwicklung positiver Arbeitseinstellungen und -verhaltensweisen von neuen Mitarbeitern, insbesondere für zentrale Variablen wie der Rollenklarheit, der organisationalen Bindung, der Verbleibabsicht und der anfänglichen Arbeitsleistung. Da die überwiegende Mehrheit der empirischen Untersuchungen bisher aus den USA stammt, ist bislang ungeklärt, welche Zusammenhänge organisationale Sozialisationstaktiken in anderen, insbesondere weniger individualistischen Kulturen wie etwa Deutschland zeigen. Ebenso ist trotz des breiten Wachstums atypischer Beschäftigungsformen und ihrem vermehrten Vordringen in den qualifizierten Tätigkeitsbereich unbekannt, ob und wie Organisationen im Sinne der Humanressourcenallokationstheorie von Lepak & Snell (1999, 2002) die Anwendung von Sozialisationstaktiken an dem strategischen Wert und der Einzigartigkeit des jeweiligen Humankapitals ausrichten. Die vorliegende Längsschnitt-Studie vergleicht daher anhand einer Befragung von 359 Novizen aus mehr als 10 deutschen Organisationen wie Arbeitgeber neue Mitglieder aus Stamm- und Randbelegschaft sozialisieren. Sie prüft zudem die Zusammenhänge zwischen einem systematischen ‘Onboarding’ und zentralen Arbeitseinstellungen und -verhaltensweisen wie etwa der Arbeitsleistung, der Kreativität, der organisationalen Bindung, der Arbeitszufriedenheit und dem Stand des psychologischen Vertrages in den ersten Wochen und Monaten eines neuen Beschäftigungsverhältnisses. Die Ergebnisse – vorrangig ermittelt über Verfahren der multivariaten Varianzanalyse und der multiplen linearen Regressionsanalyse – zeigen, dass ähnlich den bislang vorliegenden nord-amerikanischen Studien institutionalisierte Sozialisationstaktiken 6-8 Wochen nach Eintritt in die Organisation (t1) sowohl direkte als auch indirekte Zusammenhänge zu den Arbeitseinstellungen und -verhaltensweisen der neuen Mitarbeiter zeigten, insbesondere zu der affektiven organisationalen Bindung und dem Stand des psychologischen Vertrages. Auch konnten Hinweise für die in einigen Untersuchungen vorgefundene Hemmung kreativen Arbeitsverhaltens durch institutionalisierte Sozialisationstaktiken bestätigt werden. 6-8 Monate nach Eintritt in die Organisation (t2) fanden sich jedoch entweder keiner dieser Zusammenhänge mehr oder die auftretenden Effekte waren anders als hypothetisiert: Die neuen Mitarbeiter, die 6-8 Wochen nach Eintritt von einer intensiven Einarbeitung in Form institutionalisierter Sozialisationstaktiken sowie einer engen sozialen Einbindung in ihre Arbeitsgruppe berichteten, zeigten in t2 eine signifikant höhere Kündigungsabsicht und einen deutlich schlechteren Stand des psychologischen Vertrages, d.h. sie vertrauten ihrem Arbeitgeber deutlich weniger und bewerteten die Arbeitsbeziehung als wesentlich ungerechter. Die Ergebnisse deuten auch darauf hin, dass Organisationen im Einklang mit der Humanressourcenallokationstheorie von Lepak & Snell (1999, 2002) Sozialisationstaktiken am strategischen Wert und an der Einzigartigkeit bzw. Betriebsspezifität des Humankapitals ausrichten. So berichteten Zeitarbeitnehmer in den ersten Wochen eines Einsatzes von einer deutlich informaleren, d.h. individualisierteren Einarbeitung als unbefristete Novizen. Aber auch neue Mitarbeiter mit Führungsverantwortung erfuhren im Vergleich zu Novizen ohne Weisungsbefugnis eine signifikant individualisiertere Sozialisation. Während jedoch neue Führungskräfte keine wesentlichen Unterschiede in ihren Arbeitseinstellungen und -verhaltensweisen aufwiesen, zeigten Zeitarbeitnehmer in den ersten Wochen eines neuen Einsatzes bei einer Entleihorganisation eine signifikant schwächere soziale Integration in die Arbeitsgruppe, eine deutlich niedrigere Arbeitszufriedenheit, eine schwächere affektive Bindung an den Entleiher, einen schlechteren Stand des psychologischen Vertrages und eine deutlich höhere Kündigungsabsicht. Zusammengefasst können Arbeitgeber sehr wahrscheinlich über das Anbieten eines systematischen ‘Onboarding’ positive Arbeitseinstellungen und -verhaltensweisen auf Seiten ihrer neuen Mitglieder in den ersten Wochen eines neuen Beschäftigungsverhältnisses fördern. Da jedoch einige dieser Zusammenhänge für atypische Beschäftigte nicht aufgezeigt werden konnten, mag selbst eine derart umfassend organisierte Sozialisation negative Begleiterscheinungen einer atypischen Beschäftigung (z.B. Beschäftigungsunsicherheit, geringes Gehalt) nicht ohne weiteres kompensieren. Diese Befunde erhalten besonderes Gewicht durch aktuelle Entwicklungen, die darauf hindeuten, dass atypisch Beschäftigte zunehmend im qualifizierten Tätigkeitsbereich eingesetzt werden und sie zugleich immer länger in den jeweiligen Organisationen verbleiben. Auch die Ergebnisse über mögliche dysfunktionale Effekte institutionalisierter Sozialisationstaktiken wenige Monaten nach Eintritt deuten darauf hin, dass eine systematische Einarbeitung offenbar nicht per se Novizen motiviert und bindet, sondern dies bestimmten, bislang nicht untersuchten Bedingungen (z.B. Organisationsklima, Kohärenz mit dem übrigen Personalmanagement) unterliegt. / For more than 20 years Van Maanen & Schein’s (1979) organizational socialization tactics have been found to be crucial for initial work attitudes and behaviors of newcomers, especially for variables such as role ambiguity, organizational commitment, intention to stay, and performance. Most of these studies have been conducted in North America. Yet, if socialization tactics have similar effects in context of other cultures, especially less individualistic cultures such as Ger-many (Hofstede 1980; Oyserman et al. 2002) is still unclear. Further, it is unknown, if and how organizations differentiate socialization tactics depending on the strategic value and uniqueness of human capital according to Lepak & Snell’s (1999, 2002) human resource allocation theory. Thus, the given longitudinal study with 359 new hires in more than 10 German companies com-pared how employers socialize newcomers in the peripheral and contingent workforce and how a systematic ‘onboarding’, i.e. institutionalized socialization tactics affect central work attitudes and behaviors such as performance, creativity, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and state of psychological contract in the short-run as well as in the medium term. Using multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis, results show that similar to North American studies organizational socialization tactics had direct and indirect relation-ships to initial work attitudes and behaviors 6-8 weeks after entry (t1), particularly to organiza-tional commitment and state of the psychological contract. As in some other surveys, institution-alized tactics also suppressed creative role behaviors of newcomers in t1. However, 6-8 months after entry (t2) either none of these relationships were found or reversed effects approached: new hires who experienced an institutionalized socialization and reported a high level of social integration into their work group in t1 showed higher turnover intention and lower trust in their employer in t2. Finally, coinciding with human resource allocation theory (Lepak & Snell 1999, 2002) findings show that organizations seem to differentiate socialization processes depending on the strategic value and uniqueness of their human capital. For example, compared to new core workers new temporary agency workers reported a highly informal socialization. Also, newly hired managers reported significant more individualized socialization tactics than non-managers; anyhow, this seems to bear no negative consequences for initial work attitudes and behaviors of new managers, but temporary agency workers showed significant lower social inte-gration, lower job satisfaction, less organizational commitment, higher turnover intentions and a poorer state of the psychological contract. In sum, by offering systematic training and socialization employers seem to be able to foster positive work attitudes and behaviors of their new employees in the first weeks after entry. How-ever, since some direct positive relationships between institutionalized socialization tactics and distal work attitudes (e.g. organizational commitment, job satisfaction, turnover intention) did not appear for new contingent workers, even an institutionalized socialization may not be able to compensate for dissatisfactions resulting out of non-standard work arrangements (e.g. job inse-curity, low salary). These findings are especially critical given the fact that contingent workers are increasingly employed for qualified jobs and show growing tenures in (client) organizations. Further, even for new core workers the positive effects of an institutionalized socialization proc-ess do not seem to last in the long-run necessarily. Above all, findings indicate that if organiza-tions miss to configure their human resource management consistently so that an institutional-ized socialization is not followed by instruments such as human resource development, partici-pation or internal labor market and thus, is undermined by incongruent working conditions, it may evoke newcomer’s expectations which cannot be fulfilled and thus, may turn into dysfunc-tional work attitudes.

This paper familiarizes the reader with contingent convertibles and their role in the current financial landscape. A contingent convertible is a security behaving like a bond in normal times, but that converts into equity or is written down in times of turbulence. The paper presents a few existing pricing approaches and introduces an extension to one of these, the equity derivatives approach, by letting the underlying asset follow a jump-diffusion process instead of a standard Geometrical Brownian Motion. The extension requires sophisticated computational techniques in order for the pricing to stay within reasonable time frames. Since market data is sparse and incomplete in this area, the validation of the model is not performed quantitatively, but instead supported by qualitative arguments.

Contingent convertible bonds are hybrid capital instruments, contingent on some form of indicator of financial distress of the issuing bank. Following the financial crisis, these instruments are proposed as a solution to the moral hazard issue of banks too big to fail. With the increased capital requirements of the Basel III directive, contingent capital enables banks to increase their capitalization without issuing expensive equity. Also, in times of historically low interest rates, these instruments might be interesting for investors in search of higher yields, as well as long term investors wanting to implement countercyclical investment strategies. However, due to the high complexity of these instruments, valuation has proven diffcult. The purpose of this thesis is to value instruments contingent on the bank's common equity tier 1 to risk-weighted assets ratio. We build our model upon the work of Glasserman & Nouri (2012), and extend it to include contingency on risk-weighted assets, instant non-continuous conversion to equity, and a combination of fixed imposed loss and fixed conversion price as terms of conversion. We use a capital structure model in continuous time to define asset dynamics, asset claims and the event of conversion and liquidation of the bank. Thereafter we use two important results from Glasserman & Nouri (2012) to value the discounted cash flows to holders of debt and contingent debt. From this, we arrive at closed form solutions for the coupon rates of these securities. / Contingent convertible bonds (villkoradeobligationer) är hybrida kapitalinstrument som beror på någon form av indikator på finansiell instabilitet i den emitterande banken. Efter finanskrisen har dessa finansiella produkter föreslagits som en lösning på dilemmat som uppstår när banker är för stora för att låtas gå omkull. Villkorade obligationer är en väg för banker att ta in kapital och uppfylla de ökade kapitalkrav som ställs av direktiven i Basel III utan att emittera kostsamt aktiekapital. I dessa tider av historiskt låga räntesatser är den relativt höga avkastning, tillsammans med de kontracykliska effekter produkterna ger dessutom intressanta för många investerare. Att värdera dessa produkter har dock visat sig svårt då de är mycket komplexa. Syftet med denna uppsats är att värdera villkorade obligationer som beror på relationen mellan bankens kärnprimärkapital och riskviktade tillgångar. Vi använder omvandling till aktiekapital som förlustabsorberingsmekanism och använder en kombination av fixerade konverteringspris och fixerade ålagda förluster som villkor för konversion. Vi använder en kapitalstrukturell modell i kontinuerlig tid för att definiera tillgångarnas rörelser, fordringar på tillgångarna och händelsen av konversion av kontraktet eller likvideringen av banken. Därefter använder vi två viktiga resultat från Glasserman & Nouri (2012) för att värdera de diskonterade kassaflöden till ägaren av obligationer och villkorade obligationer. Från detta hittar vi analytiska lösningar för storleken av kupongräntorna på obligationerna, villkorade som normala.

Yangtze finless porpoises (YFPs) are the only fresh-water adapted porpoises in the world and they are endemic to Yangtze River system, including Poyang Lake. They are threatened by many factors, such as illegal fishing and overfishing, sand dredging, intensive shipping traffic, and pollution from agriculture and industry. Consequently, their population is decreasing at a great rate and they are listed as an endangered rare species on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 1996. Moreover, a hydroelectricity project in Poyang Lake is in planning by the state of Jiangxi province, which will generate further serious threats to YFPs by cutting off their migration route and fragmenting their habitat. Therefore, it is very urgent to take some protection measures for YFPs. A special nature reserve is one possibility to protect YFPs, such as a nature reserve area, which is located in Poyang Lake. In order to find out whether a nature reserve is worthwhile, an economic analysis valuing the benefit of YFPs has been conducted. An appropriate method, the contingent valuation approach, has been chosen. The overall aim of such a contingent valuation study is to estimate the total benefits of YFPs by asking individuals’ willingness to pay for the porpoise conservation project. Because many people are unfamiliar with YFPs and the species’ total values consist of mainly non-use values, preference construction and estimating a demand function is a complex task. Therefore, the valuation workshop method, a group-based approach, which can make respondents motivated and well-informed so that they thoroughly consider the questions, provides a realistic decision-making environment. This method was selected to help respondents construct their preference. Within this study, a series of such valuation workshops were successfully organized and data and information were collected. The findings of the study have both methodological and policy-related implications. From the perspective of methodology, the important findings include: 1) Valid response rates are high enough to support further analysis and large mean WTP for porpoise conservation are obtained. Therefore, it can be concluded that the valuation workshop method as has been chosen in this study, is suitable for valuing porpoise conservation. The valuation workshop method can make people well informed about environmental goods and services, such as rare species, so that they can build their preference about them, which is quite a complex task for many individuals. IV 2) Distance effects are verified to fail to work on willingness to pay (WTP) for porpoise conservation, which is mostly driven by non-use values. Therefore, distance need not be included in the aggregation analysis of total benefits of YFPs. Similarly, the market for conservation of YFPs can be defined as the nation of China. And the sampling frame of such an evaluation of a rare species can be all the Chinese population. 3) Income effects are confirmed to be significantly influential for both Chinese respondents and German respondents. Hence, the aggregation of total values of YFPs should consider about individuals’ income levels and their ability to pay (ATP). It is inferred from the fact of smaller mean WTP in China as compared with Germany that some low-income respondents’ WTP bids are possibly distorted by their ATP, which needs further confirmation in follow-up research. In addition, there are also some policy-related implications, which are closely related with the mentioned methodological aspect: The total economic values of porpoise conservation are predicted to be appreciably huge. Definitely, their total benefits should be taken into account by politicians and decision-makers. This study makes explicit people’s attitudes and preference on the trade-off between economic growth and ecological use. The establishment of a special nature reserve for YFPs is still an open question.