Dana Marie Bauer

Spatial Factors and Stated Preference Values for Public Goods: Considerations for Rural Land Use

This paper examines whether and how survey respondents react to spatial factors in stated preference surveys, and the ways in which preferences for spatial factors may influence welfare estimation. Alternative proposals to develop rural lands for residential purposes in southern New England were studied. Results illustrate that spatial attributes can influence estimated willingness to pay for development plans, even in cases where spatial attributes are only presented as cartographic details of maps used to clarify survey scenarios. Moreover, we find that subtle, and potentially unintended, spatial features presented in choice questions may influence marginal valuation of non-spatial attributes. (R52)

Marginal lands: the role of remote sensing in constructing landscapes for agrofuel development

With the growth of the biofuel complex, the concept of ‘marginal land’ has emerged as a term commonly associated with the promotion of agrofuels. Remote sensing and other data are used to globally characterize land as marginal based on predominantly biophysical features that render it ‘non-competitive’ for the purpose of commercial food agriculture. This paper explores the limitations of current geospatial technologies in determining whether marginal land is appropriate for bioenergy crops given that (i) people often have intentions behind land use that are not reflected in most routinely collected remote sensing data and (ii) a remote (and spatio-temporally static) characterization of marginality is unable to capture the shifting character of what constitutes marginality in an economic sense and is therefore a non-sequitur for guiding land use decisions on the ground. This paper also explores the latent values embedded in the ontology of a macro-scale ‘marginal land’ land cover class and advances the notion that ‘marginal land’ as an artificial spatial construct serves to re-frame land in a way that neglects socio-ecological processes in order to re-frame it in support of principles based in resource productivism.

Economic Consequences of Pollinator Declines: A Synthesis

This paper surveys the literature on pollinator declines and related concerns regarding global food security. Methods for valuing the economic risks associated with pollinator declines are also reviewed. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) approach is introduced to assess the effects of a global catastrophic loss of pollinators. There appears to be evidence supporting a trend towards future pollinator shortages in the United States and other regions of the world. Results from the CGE model show economic risks to both direct crop sectors and indirect noncrop sectors in the economy, with some amount of regional heterogeneity.

Preferences for Residential Development Attributes and Support for the Policy Process: Implications for Management and Conservation of Rural Landscapes

The rural public may not only be concerned with the consequences of land management; residents may also have systematic preferences for policy instruments applied to management goals. Preferences for outcomes do not necessarily imply matching support for the underlying policy process. This study assesses relationships among support for elements of the policy process and preferences for management outcomes. Preferences are examined within the context of alternative proposals to manage growth and conserve landscape attributes in southern New England. Results are based on (a) stated preferences estimated from a multi-attribute contingent choice survey of rural residents, and (b) Likert-scale assessment of strength of support for land use policy tools. Findings indicate general but not universal correlation among policy support indicators and preferences for associated land use outcomes, but also confirm the suspicion that policy support and land use preference may not always coincide.

Rural Amenity Values and Length of Residency

New residents of rural communities are often assumed to have preferences for development and conservation that differ from those of longer-term residents. However, the literature offers little to quantify presumed preference heterogeneity. This article assesses whether stated preferences differ according to length of residency. Results are based on a conjoint (choice experiment) survey of Rhode Island rural residents. Heterogeneity—according to length of town residency—is modeled using dummy variables, multiplicative interactions, and Lagrangian interpolation polynomials. Results are compared across the three models, and identify a range of attributes for which willingness to pay depends on length of residency. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Are wetland regulations cost effective for species protection? A case study of amphibian metapopulations

Recent declines in amphibian populations have raised concern among conservation biologists, with habitat loss and degradation due to human activities among the leading causes. The most common policies used to protect the habitat of pond-breeding amphibians are wetland regulations that safeguard the wetland itself. However, many amphibians spend much of their adult lives foraging and over-wintering in upland habitats and exist as metapopulations with dispersal among ponds. With no consideration of lands in the dispersal matrix, wetland policies may be ineffective at protecting amphibians or other wetland species that disperse across the landscape. This paper examined the adequacy and cost effectiveness of alternative conservation policies and their corresponding land use patterns on the long-term persistence of pond-breeding amphibians in exurban landscapes. We used computer simulations to compare outcomes of wetland buffer policies and broader landscape-wide conservation policies across a variety of landscape scenarios, and we conducted sensitivity analyses on the models species parameters in order to generalize our results to other wetland species. Results showed that, in the majority of human-dominated landscapes, some amount of dispersal matrix protection is necessary for long-term species persistence. However, in landscapes with extremely low-intensity land use (e.g., low-density residential housing) and high pond density, wetland buffer policies may be all that is required. It is not always more cost effective to protect core habitat over the dispersal matrix, a common conservation practice. Conservation costs that result from forgone residential, commercial, or agricultural activities can vary substantially but increase in a nonlinear manner regardless of land use zoning. There appears to be a threshold around an average habitat patch occupancy level of 80%, after which opportunity costs rise dramatically.

Do Exurban Communities Want More Development

ABSTRACT Most land-use surveys of exurban residents focus on eliciting preferences for residential development and open space conservation. This article, in contrast, reports on a stated preference study of exurban residents that assesses the relative attractiveness of a variety of commercial and recreational land uses. Focus group participants and town planners proclaimed a demand for certain commercial services such as modern grocery stores and fine-dining restaurants, but survey respondents generally exhibit a strong preference for no additional development beyond the current rate of development. Results show that if additional development is to occur, then recreational services are generally preferred over more traditional commercial development. Combining two commercial services in a single development project are strongly preferred to stand-alone developments. Our approach illustrates how planners may uncover misconceptions about and priorities for land conversion through examining residents’ preferences.

Conserving and Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity: Economic, Institutional and Social Challenges K.N. Ninan (Ed)

As the title states, Conserving and Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity brings together a series of papers that assess the economic, institutional, and social challenges associated with conserving biological and genetic resources and the ecosystem services they provide. Targeted towards natural resource managers, policymakers, and the academic community, the volume covers a broad array of social science issues surrounding the valuation, management, governance, and long-term protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services. A variety of natural resources (forests, fisheries, livestock, and wildlife) and ecosystem types (forests, wetlands, marine, and semi-arid lands) are included. The majority of the papers focus on case studies in developing countries where conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services is particularly challenging, although many of the concepts and issues apply equally to developed countries. After an introductory chapter, the book is divided into five sections. The first section includes six papers focused on the ‘valuation’ of biodiversity and ecosystem services including endangered species, fish biodiversity, non-timber forest products, and overall biodiversity in national parks. The majority of these studies use contingent valuation or household surveys to estimate economic values for non-marketed resources. A seventh paper appearing in a later section combines contingent valuation and travel cost methods in evaluating multiple ecosystem services derived from wetlands. The chapter by Tisdell on the economics of fish biodiversity offers a nice discussion of the linkages between aquaculture, commercial and recreational fishing of wild species, and their impacts on wild fish and other marine biodiversity. Tisdell (p. 54) compares the movement towards aquaculture to the historical cultivation of crops and domestication of livestock, both of which reduced overall biodiversity through the “human selection of genetic material,” and raises good questions for future research. The next three sections present a series of approaches for the ‘conservation’ of biodiversity and ecosystem services including payments for ecosystem services, examination and inclusion of institutional factors in decision-making, collaborative management and negotiated agreements, and the protection of indigenous peoples’ physical and intellectual property rights. I was particularly impressed with the set of insights regarding conservation