The aesthetics of forestry: What has empirical preference research taught us?

Multiple-use forest management has come to include an attention to scenic values, and methods are being developed to incorporate aesthetic considerations into decision making. A considerable body of scientific research has been conducted exploring public preferences for forest landscapes and intersubjective and contextual influences upon their perception. This research is surveyed. Findings regarding the perception of forest conditions, such as tree density and size, ground cover, species makeup and nonmanagement are considered. The scenic effects of forest treatments such as thinning, burning, and chemical application are outlined. Findings for harvest and regeneration practices such as clear-cutting, shelterwoods, selection cuts, and slash treatments are reported. Advances that consider the effects of time upon forest beauty and experiences are explored, along with a problem in multiple-use evaluation of scenic changes. Research on these topics and on observer intersubjective problems and general theory development is supported as a course of advancement in the field.     

Identifying landscape scale patterns from individual scale processes

Extrapolating across scales is a critical problem in ecology. Explicit mechanistic models of ecological systems provide a bridge from measurements of processes at small and short scales to larger scales; spatial patterns at large scales can be used to test the outcomes of these models. However, it is necessary to identify patterns that are not dependent on initial conditions, because small scale initial conditions will not normally be measured at large scales. We examined one possible pattern that could meet these conditions, the relationship between mean and variance in abundance of a parasitic tick in an individual based model of a lizard tick interaction. We scaled discrepancies between the observed and simulated patterns with a transformation of the variance–covariance matrix of the observed pattern to objectively identify patterns that are “close”.     

Understanding resident satisfaction with involvement in highway planning: in-depth interviews during a highway planning process in the Netherlands

This study investigates resident satisfaction with provided involvement activities during highway planning processes, with particular attention given to the planned Southern Ring Road highway project in Groningen, the Netherlands. In-depth interviews with 38 residents living in the project area reveal important themes contributing to satisfaction. Satisfaction with passive information activities is motivated by the extent to which information addresses concerns, but (dis)trust in government and other information sources also plays a role. For residents preferring to obtain additional information, perceived access to such information and the extent to which it reduces concerns are also important to satisfaction. Finally, for residents who would rather participate actively, satisfaction is motivated by their perceived access to participation activities and the sense of being heard. Study results show how residents’ evaluations of the themes underpinning involvement satisfaction are based on their perceptions of actual project team activities and contextual factors.     

Managing Recreational Trail Environments for Mountain Bike User Preferences

N  = 406), highlight some important issues concerning the design and management of wildland recreation environments that are primarily used for mountain biking. For example, bikers were found to significantly prefer water bars above all other tested soil erosion management techniques; trail erosion factors, including the presence of rocks, roots, and gullies, all added to biking experiences on average; trail design factors, such as the presence of turns, bumps, jumps, and obstacles, all added to biking experiences in general. These findings were used to address questions that resource managers should consider when striving to effectively manage wildland recreation areas primarily used for mountain biking.     

Redistribution and pollution taxes with non-linear Engel curves

This paper analyses optimal corrective taxation and optimal income redistribution. The Pigouvian pollution tax is higher if pollution damages disproportionally hurt the poor due to equity weighting of pollution damages. Moreover, under general utility functions, optimal pollution taxes should be set below the Pigouvian tax if the poor spend a disproportionate fraction of their income on polluting goods. However, if Engel curves are linear, optimal pollution taxes should follow the first-best rule for the Pigouvian corrective tax even if the government wants to redistribute income and the poor spend a disproportional part of their income on polluting goods. The often-used quasi-linear, CES and Stone-Geary utility functions all have linear Engel curves. If Engel curves are linear, and if pollution taxes are not optimised, Pareto-improving green tax reforms exist that move the pollution tax closer to the Pigouvian tax. Simulations demonstrate that optimal corrective taxes should be Pigouvian if the demand for polluting goods is derived from a LES demand system, but deviate from the Pigouvian taxes if demand for polluting goods demand is derived from a PIGLOG demand system.     

Disentangling the effects of policy and payment consequentiality and risk attitudes on stated preferences

Incentivizing respondents to truthfully reveal their preferences in stated preference surveys requires that they believe their survey responses can influence decisions related to the outcome in question (policy consequentiality) and that they will have to bear their share of the coercive cost if the outcome is implemented (payment consequentiality). We investigate the effects of these two aspects of perceived consequentiality on stated preferences in a field survey concerning renewable energy development in Poland. We find that beliefs in policy and payment consequentiality strengthen the respondents’ interest in having the project implemented. However, policy consequentiality decreases and payment consequentiality increases their sensitivity to the project cost, which, respectively, increases and decreases their willingness-to-pay for the project. We conclude that the two aspects of consequentiality should be addressed separately. Additionally, we inquire the theoretically speculated links between the respondents’ perceptions of policy and payment consequentiality and their risk attitudes, and we find no significant relationship.     

Integrating Biological and Social Values When Prioritizing Places for Biodiversity Conservation

The consideration of information on social values in conjunction with biological data is critical for achieving both socially acceptable and scientifically defensible conservation planning outcomes. However, the influence of social values on spatial conservation priorities has received limited attention and is poorly understood. We present an approach that incorporates quantitative data on social values for conservation and social preferences for development into spatial conservation planning. We undertook a public participation GIS survey to spatially represent social values and development preferences and used species distribution models for 7 threatened fauna species to represent biological values. These spatially explicit data were simultaneously included in the conservation planning software Zonation to examine how conservation priorities changed with the inclusion of social data. Integrating spatially explicit information about social values and development preferences with biological data produced prioritizations that differed spatially from the solution based on only biological data. However, the integrated solutions protected a similar proportion of the species’ distributions, indicating that Zonation effectively combined the biological and social data to produce socially feasible conservation solutions of approximately equivalent biological value. We were able to identify areas of the landscape where synergies and conflicts between different value sets are likely to occur. Identification of these synergies and conflicts will allow decision makers to target communication strategies to specific areas and ensure effective community engagement and positive conservation outcomes. Integración de Valores Biológicos y Sociales al Priorizar Sitios para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad     

Bearded vultures (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Gypaetus barbatus</Emphasis>) prefer fatty bones

In animal species, prey processing and the provisioning of nutrients are subject to several constraints related with finding, ingesting and processing food. In most bird species, these constraints are obvious as a consequence of food morphology. In the case of the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), in comparison with other species, its behavioural and physiological adaptations apparently allow this vulture to ingest bone remains irrespective of their morphology. Here, by comparing bones delivered to the nest to be consumed (selected) and remains found at an experimental feeding station and at bone-breaking sites or ossuaries (rejected), I tested whether bearded vultures are capable of choosing from among the various anatomical parts of an animal carcass in relation to their fatty acid content (nutrient concentration hypothesis), their size (width-reduction hypothesis) or both. The results suggest that bearded vultures prefer the fatty anatomical parts (with a high percentage of oleic acid) of an animal carcass regardless of bone length, although bone morphology as a consequence of handling efficiency or the ingestion process may also play a secondary role in food selection. The close association between the bones selected and their high fat value implies an optimisation of foraging time and of the increased energy gained from the food. This is in line with selective foraging to redress specific nutritional imbalances (nutrient concentration hypothesis) and, secondarily, the width-reduction hypothesis.     

Correcting for non-response bias in contingent valuation surveys concerning environmental non-market goods: an empirical investigation using an online panel

Data collection for economic valuation by using Internet surveys and pre-recruited Internet panels can be associated with severe disadvantages. Problems concerning sample coverage and sample representativeness can be expected. Representation errors may occur since people can choose whether to be part of an Internet panel and subsequently whether they wish to participate in the survey, thereby introducing two elements of potential self-selection. These elements may be correlated with preferences, thus making the respondents a non-random and non-representative sample, ultimately biasing results. This paper analyses a sample used for an Internet contingent valuation method survey eliciting preferences for improvements in water quality of a river. We find that some variables that affect the survey participation decision also affect willingness-to-pay, consequently biasing our welfare estimates. We show how adjusting willingness-to-pay for this bias can be accomplished by using a grouped data model incorporating a correlation parameter to account for selection.     

Elicitation of willingness to pay for upgradeable products with calibrated auction-conjoint method

Understanding consumer preferences is a key element of new product development and sustainable consumption. Among sustainable products, we consider new products with upgradability properties. Upgradeability helps to prolong the lifespan of a product, satisfying changing consumer preferences and needs. This additional created value must be measured by willingness to pay premiums. This paper uses a method which valorizes each attribute of the product and analyzes the determinants of these premiums. A key advantage of the calibrated auction-conjoint method is the possibility of estimating numerous attributes with a large number of attribute levels. The results support the idea that consumers are willing to pay premiums for upgradeable, sustainable products, although these premiums are rather weak for some durable products in the study.