Replacing rubber plantations by rain forest in Southwest China - Who would gain and how much?

The cultivation of rubber trees in Xishuangbanna Prefecture in China’s Yunnan Province has triggered an unprecedented economic development but it is also associated with severe environmental problems. Rubber plantations are encroaching the indigenous rainforests at a large scale and a high speed in Xishuangbanna. Many rare plant and animal species are endangered by this development, the natural water management is disturbed and even the microclimate in this region has changed over the past years. The present study aims at an assessment of the environmental benefits accruing from a reforestation project partly reversing the deforestation that has taken place over the past years. To this end a Contingent Valuation survey has been conducted in Xishuangbanna to elicit local residents’ willingness to pay for this reforestation program that converts existing rubber plantations back into forest. It is shown that local people's awareness of the environmental problems caused by increasing rubber plantation is quite high and that in spite of the economic advantages of rubber plantation there is a positive willingness among the local population to contribute financially to a reduction of existing rubber plantations for the sake of a partial restoration of the local rainforest. These results could be used for the practical implementation of a PES (Payments for Eco-System Services) system for reforestation in Xishuangbanna

The economic value of improved wastewater irrigation: a contingent valuation study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In developing countries the use of wastewater for irrigation can cause considerable harm to public health and the environment. This paper uses contingent valuation to estimate the economic value of safe use of wastewater for crop production on farms within and around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We estimate a surprisingly large welfare gain from policies for safe use of wastewater for irrigation. Our study highlights the potential and the possible pitfalls of using nonmarket valuation techniques as an input into public decision making where traditional resource use interacts with public health and environmental concerns in complex ways