Saltwater marshes in the Bay of Fundy act as greenhouse gases sinks and reservoirs by fixing atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it in carbon rich deposits. There are approximately 3,131.5 hectares of saltwater marsh in the Bay of Fundy, of which 958 ha are currently owned by the government or conservation organizations and 2,173.5 ha are owned by private landowners. A multiple bounded discrete choice contingent valuation survey was conducted to estimate landowners' willingness to accept compensation for selling their saltwater marshes to a conservation program. A multiple bounded model developed by Gregory Poe and Michael Welsh (1995) was used to analyze the responses. Mean willingness to accept compensation for one hectare of saltwater marsh was estimated to be $1,004.22, and aggregate willingness to accept compensation for the total of 2,173.5 ha of saltwater marsh owned by private landowners was approximately $2,180,000. Using these estimates and the rate of carbon dioxide-equivalent absorption of saltwater marshes, the opportunity cost of one tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent sequestered by saltwater marshes in the Bay of Fundy was calculated to range between $16.70 and $19.95. Decision-makers can use this result for policy purposes concerning the achievement by Canada of its greenhouse gases emission reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol (1997).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.31217 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | De Maio Sukic, Alejandro. |
| Contributors | Thomassin, Paul J. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Agricultural Economics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001810322, proquestno: MQ70409, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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