José R. Soto

Creating Voluntary Payment Programs: Effective Program Design and Ranchers’ Willingness to Conserve Florida Panther Habitat

Landowner resistance to Endangered Species Act regulations is a key conservation challenge. In 2014 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that a mix of payments for ecosystem services and regulatory assurances be implemented to encourage cattle ranchers’ participation in Florida panther recovery efforts. To identify cattle ranchers’ preferences for the proposed programs, we implemented a best-worst scaling choice experiment. Our results suggest that voluntary conservation programs are most likely to enroll politically conservative landowners if these programs provide per acre payments or tax reductions, are of shorter duration, and do not require overly intrusive or restrictive levels of monitoring to ensure compliance. (JEL Q57, Q58)

Expected Timber-Based Economic Impacts of a Wood-Boring Beetle (Acanthotomicus Sp.) That Kills American Sweetgum

Abstract American sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua L. [Altingiaceae]) in China are being killed by a newly discovered wood-boring beetle “sweetgum inscriber” (Acanthotomicus sp.). It has not been detected in the United States yet, but given the extent of trade with Asian countries, eventual arrival of this beetle is a serious concern. The American sweetgum is one of the main hardwood species in the southern United States, and provides several economic and ecological benefits to society. We present the first economic analysis of the potential damage from sweetgum inscriber (SI) to timber-based land values in the southern United States. We modeled economic impacts for a range of feasible SI arrival rates that reflect policy interventions: 1) no efforts to prevent arrival (scenario A, once every 14 and 25 yr), 2) partial prevention by complying with ISPM 15 standards (scenario B, once every 33 and 100 yr), and 3) total prevention of arrival (scenario C, zero transmission of SI). Our results indicated much lower land values for sweetgum plantations without the prevention on SI establishment (scenario A, US

Landowner attitudes and willingness to accept compensation from forest carbon offsets: Application of best–worst choice modeling in Florida USA

1,843–US

Pre-invasion economic assessment of invasive species prevention: A putative ambrosia beetle in Southeastern loblolly pine forests

4,383 ha–1) compared with partial prevention (scenario B, US

Does policy process influence public values for forest-water resource protection in Florida?

5,426–US

Economic Sustainability of Payments for Water Yield in Slash Pine Plantations in Florida

8,050 ha–1) and total eradication of SI (scenario C, US

A distributional analysis of the socio-ecological and economic determinants of forest carbon stocks

9,825). Across the region, upper bound timber-based economic losses to plantation owners is US

Estimating the Supply of Forest Carbon Offsets: A Comparison of Best- Worst and Discrete Choice Valuation Methods

151.9 million (US

Heterogeneous Preferences for Urban Forest Attributes: A Latent Class Approach

4.6 million annually)—an estimate that can help inform policy decisions.