TY  - JOUR
T1  - Local Population Preferences Toward Restoring Ecosystem Services of a Wetland in Thailand
AU - Chaikumbung, Mayula 
JO  - International Business Management
VL  - 9
IS  - 5
SP  - 771
EP  - 783
PY  - 2015
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1993-5250
DO  - ibm.2015.771.783
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=ibm.2015.771.783
KW  - Wetland valuation
KW  -ecosystem services
KW  -choice experiment
KW  -willingness
KW  -walfare assesment
AB  - This study reports the findings of a choice experiment designed to explore local population preferences toward wetland ecosystem restoration of Bung Khong Long Wetland in Thailand. By addressing ecological, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of ecosystem services, the findings provide policy-makers with a richer insight into the interconnections among ecological, socioeconomic and cultural systems in explaining the value of ecosystem services. Gaining an understanding of the trade-offs associated with different interests in ecosystem uses in this community has the capacity to promote wetland management and enhance land use planning. The choice experiment application entails selecting attributes and their levels and developing an experimental design to create the choice sets or hypothetical scenarios for welfare assessment via the questionnaire. The study is based on household level data collected from 780 randomly drawn respondents living around the lake and the data are analysed using the Random Parameter Logit Model with interactions. The findings indicate that the local population derives positive and significant values from the restoration of wetland ecosystem services, indicating caution is needed in the decision-making processes involving sensitive environments faced with competing uses. Socioeconomic and attitudinal characteristics of respondents are important factors influencing willingness to pay, implying community preferences are important in the effectiveness of environmental conservation efforts in this community. The cultural values associated with the wetland are significant suggesting that incorporating culture preferences may be a key factor in supporting wetland conservation.
ER  -