An Evaluation Of Household's Stated Willingness To Pay For Improvements In Ecosystem Services:Evidence From Environmental Improvements In The Heihe Watershed

The ecological ecosystems are often valued in different ways across space,and the importance of this heterogeneity for policymakers is increasingly becoming apparent.The residents of the inland regions are attaining numerous gains from the river ecosystems.The emphasis of current study is on the assessment of the households' willingness to pay(WTP)and spatial preference heterogeneity for the upgradation of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems across sub-basins of Heihe River.Moreover,the feasibility of benefit transfer among the three sub basins of the river was evaluated.An investigation was carried out by using a choice experiment method across the whole Heihe River basin,to value ecosystem services.The selected aquatic ecosystem services which were considered in this study were farmland irrigation,East Juyan Lake's area,level of river water quality,sandstorms days per year,and facilities for leisure and entertainment,while the selected terrestrial ecosystem services were biodiversity,yield of the cultivated land,farm land landscape,agricultural products quality,reduction in greenhouse gases effect,and size of oasis in Ejinaqi,in order to achieve a higher ecological status by 2025.The description of the selected ecosystem services,along with their improvements were assessed in all 3 sub basins,i.e.,upper,middle,and lower sub basins,as well as in urban and rural areas.Conditional logit and mixed logit/random parameter logit models were used to estimate spatial preference heterogeneity.The estimated results signified the importance of selected terrestrial and aquatic ecological attributes.Sampled respondents of upper and middle basins placed highest WTP for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases among all other attributes and the WTP amount was 99.27 and 66.49 Yuan/Year respectively.Whereas in lower basin,improvement in landscape of farmland was highly valued,i.e.,107 Yuan/Year.In terrestrial ecosystems,the lowest WTP was recorded for Ejinaqi oasis size in all sub basins.In aquatic ecological attributes,improving water quality was the most valued ecosystem in all sub basins,and the corresponding WTP values are 122.81,99.87 and 177.43 Yuan/Year in upper,middle and lower basins respectively,which ensure the significance of water quality in the entire basin.In aquatic ecosystems the lowest WTP amount was recorded for leisure and entertainment conditions in each sub basin.Similarly,the preferences of sampled respondents in urban,rural and pooled data were evaluated for different aquatic(5)and terrestrial(6)ecosystem services across the entire Heihe River Basin.The estimated results revealed that average urban households are willing to pay more for the restoration of ecosystem services compared to rural residents.In abiotic ecosystem services,the maximum willingness to pay in all three geographical splitted regions was recorded for river water quality,while lowest was recorded for Lake Area in urban and pooled data and for Leisure and entertainment in rural area.Similarly,for biotic ecosystem services,the maximum willingness to pay was recorded for Greenhouse gases effect in urban and for Agricultural product quality in rural and pooled data while lowest was recorded for Oasis in all three regions.Regarding the assessment of benefit transfer among upper,middle and lower basins,the outcomes of the study were estimated through the conditional logit and random parameter logit models.The heterogenous willingness to pay amounts for ecosystems approved the disparities in taste and preferences of the respondents across all sub basins.Considering spatial heterogeneity of preferences,the random parameter logit model led to smaller transfer errors than those estimated by conditional logit model.For instance,the values of transfer errors estimated by random parameter logit model from lower to upper sub basin,from upper to middle sub basin and from middle to lower sub basin were 17.76%,80.65% and 33.92%respectively.Simultaneously,the estimated values of transfer errors for the same settings in conditional logit model were 21.93%,109.31% and 43.08% respectively.The results validate the transfer of benefit among all the three sub basins of the Heihe River,and are helpful for the proper management of ecosystems.According to this research,the non-market benefits that may amass from the various types of upgradations in the ecosystem services are nuanced,in the context of their potential beneficiaries,ecological effects,and by inference,their total value and policy consequences.At the same time,both the residents of the Heihe river basin and the government,must pay much more consideration to the selected ecological ecosystem services.