| As an crucial part of biodiversity,wild species not only provide indispensable resources such as food,industrial raw materials,but also plays an important role in maintaining the balance of ecosystem,the stability of environment and diversity of species and genetics.Assessing wild species by an economic method can present its intrinsic value in an intuitive way to stakeholders and policy makers to formulate more effective measures for species protection.Choice Experiments is one kind of stated preference methods,based on modeling the preference of the assessing object,each attribute of object can be assessed with more flexible way.Choice Experiments has been widely used in environmental issues,ecosystem protection and management,etc.Elaeagnus mollis is an endemic species with protection and utilization value.Therefore,this paper takes Elaeagnus mollis as an example to study the feasibility of Choice Experiments in the valuation of wild species.The results are as follows:(1)Based on the participatory valuation concept and semi-structured interview,we select five main attributes which are related to the protection and utilization value of Elaeagnus mollis.There are planting area,product development,seedling varieties,reserve funding,farmers annual profit respectively.(2)The questionnaire was further designed and distributed according to the attributes of the species.The three stakeholders are investigated,namely,farmers,civil servants or corporate employees.The characteristics of samples are: the ratio of male and female is balanced;The age is concentrated on 30-60 years old;The monthly income is mainly between 2000 and 4000 yuan,and there are fewer high-income people with more than 8000 yuan per month.Educational backgrounds are mainly high school and junior college.Respondents cognition to Elaeagnus mollis: respondents are familiar with the basic knowledge of Elaeagnus mollis,such as protection class,nutritional value,distribution,etc.while less aware of ecological function.(3)Using Nlogit 5.0 software to estimate parameters of five attributes,two models with the best fitting effect were selected——random parameter model and latent class model for parameter estimation.Random parameter model result shows that stakeholders prefer better construction in reserves,and more input in high-end products and low-end products at the same time.While latent class model separates stakeholders in two classes,one is developmental class,the other is protecting class.Developmental class shows preference of pay more attention to high-end products,but the least input in low-end products,which reveals the attention on economic benefits that Elaeagnus mollis can bring.Protected class is satisfied with the status quo of nature reserve and has the least preference to developing high-end products and increasing reserve funding,which shows relatively conservative attitude to the development of Elaeagnus mollis.(4)Based on the result of random parameter model with the most favorable fitting situation,for planting area,saplings breeding and farmers annual profit,stakeholders are willing to pay for the improvement from one level to a better level 62.14 yuan,156.00 yuan and 220.57 yuan per year based on the family unit respectively;for the development of high-end products,low-end products,WTP are 227.57 yuan,-15.14 yuan,while 242.71 yuan for develop high-end and low-end products at the same time;for the investment of reserve funding,don't input,status quo and input more are worth-154.71 yuan,176.29 yuan and 331 yuan respectively.Finally,the largest amount of WTP will be 285.62 yuan per year based on the family unit.(5)According to the results of the study,suggestions for the protection and development of Elaeagnus mollis are put forward.This paper estimates species value of Elaeagnus mollis by using Choice experiments,which not only provides a case study to prove the feasibility of the method on species value assessment,but also good for ecological compensation of the protection work. |
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