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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:11121 |
| Date | 12 January 2011 |
| Creators | Dong, Yanyan |
| Contributors | Hollaender, Robert, Hansjuergens, Bernd, Universität Leipzig |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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