Conference Agenda

Natural grasslands constitute one of the planet’s most extensive and ecologically important biomes in the planet. Moreover, they provide essential services for societal well-being, supporting the livelihoods of millions of people. Nevertheless, the public.good nature of many of these services, conspires against the sustainable use of natural grasslands. This is particularly true for those services provided by biodiversity, usually not the most linked to marketed goods. In this paper we inform policy makers about the public preferences for biodiversity conservation in the Río de la Plata grasslands and basic alternative designs of the conservation program. To do it, we conduct a contingent valuation survey among Uruguayan households. We find that Uruguayan households exhibit a positive median willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation under the proposed program and that this is largely insensitive to key design features, including the sample design and the payment horizon. In particular, the estimated willingness to pay is insensitive also to whether conservation areas are contiguous or fragmented. Overall, acceptance behavior is driven mainly by the cost of the program and by socio-demographic and attitudinal factors.

From a policy perspective, this study shows that stated willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation reflects support for conservation policies. The limited sensitivity of stated values to ecological design features underscores the importance of clearly communicating the biodiversity implications of conserving fragmented areas when designing conservation policies. Finally, under standard cost–benefit criteria, the estimated aggregate willingness to pay exceeds prevailing land rental values in the relevant regions, suggesting that a payment for ecosystem services program for natural grassland conservation would be welfare-improving.