The WTP for property rights for the Giant Panda: can a charismatic species be an instrument for conservation of natural habitat?

The paper presents the results from a stated preference study to address issues concerning the potential for using flag-ship species, such as the Giant Panda, to purchase the property rights for the conservation of natural habitat. The study finds, first, that there is clear WTP for acquiring the property rights for panda habitat. The nature of this demand is found both convincing and logically coherent in that it is an increasing function of land (at a diminishing rate). Secondly, the study decomposed the elicited values into genetic stock, animal welfare and implicit biodiversity values. The results show that the latter type of value consist of almost half of total value implying that the Panda is in fact a potential instrument for greater biodiversity conservation. Thirdly, the study shows that these implicit biodiversity values are dependent on the preservation of the flagship species itself, implying that the panda is not only a potential instrument for habitat conservation, but a necessary one. Finally, the extent to which the flagship approach can be capable of contributing to wider biodiversity conservation is discussed

Combining revealed and stated preference methods to assess the private value of agrobiodiversity in Hungarian home gardens:

" Hungarian home gardens are small-scale farms managed by farm households using traditional management practices and family labor. They generate private benefits for farmers by enhancing diet quality and providing food when costs of transacting in local markets are high. Home gardens also generate public benefits for society by supporting long-term productivity advances in agriculture. In this paper, we estimate the private value to farmers of agrobiodiversity in home gardens. Building on the approach presented in EPTD Discussion Paper 117 (2004), we combine a stated preference approach (a choice experiment model) and a revealed preference approach (a discrete-choice, farm household model). Both models are based on random utility theory. To combine the models, primary data were collected from the same 239 farm households in three regions of Hungary. Combining approaches leads to a more efficient and robust estimation of the private value of agrobiodiversity in home gardens. Findings can be used to identify those farming communities, which would benefit most from agri-environmental schemes that support agrobiodiversity maintenance, at least public cost." Authors' abstractHome gardens, Small-scale farmers, Diet quality, Agricultural productivity, Agrobiodiversity, Household surveys, Private value, Choice experiment model, Farm household model, Revealed and stated preference methods,

Alternative Payment Vehicles in Contingent Valuation: The Case of Genetically Modified Foods

In this paper, a secondary consumer food survey is used to explore the role of the payment vehicle in contingent valuation. More specifically, the paper investigates the household willingness-to-pay in the UK for a GM and non-GM labelling program under two alternative payment vehicles: 1) a standard product tax, under which consumers must trade-off some of their personal income for the labelling program; and 2) a taxation reallocation scheme, whereby consumers must trade-off some amount of their household’s taxation money that is currently spent on other government-funded goods. Contrary to previous valuation research, the willingness-to-pay under each vehicle is not found to be statistically significantly different, suggesting that in the case study investigated here, the marginal values of private income and other public goods in the UK are approximately equal.Payment Vehicles; Contingent Valuation:

Optimal design of a quasi-redundant protective system for nuclear reactors

In many instances protective systems used in nuclear reactors are quasi-redundant systems; each of a number of safety channels feeds a number of independent protective units. A reactor shutdown is initiated if more than a specified number of units are in favour of shut down. The objective is to achieve a very high reliability at a reasonable cost. An analysis is presented to obtain the reliability, failsafe and fail-danger probabilities of a quasi-redundant system. Three algorithms are given for: (a) the design of a quasi-redundant system having the maximum reliability subject to a cost constraint, (b) the optimal design satisfying a given reliability level at the minimum cost and (c) the optimal design satisfying a combined safety requirement at the minimum cost. The algorithms are illustrated by way of examples

Optimum trip level of M-out-of-N reactor temperature trip-amplifier systems

This paper determines the optimum high-trip- level setting of m-out-of-n:G temperature- trip-amplifier systems,used for the protection of nuclear reactors against excess temperatures, which results in the maximum reliability. The bivariate normal distribution is used to simulate the fluctuation of the thermocouple signals and the uncertainties of the trip settings. The thermocouples and the trip amplifiers can fail in two modes of failure: fail-safe and fail-danger. It is shown that by properly selecting the trip levels of the amplifier units the reliability of the protection system is maximized. The optimum trip-level is calculated for various commonly used configurations using a computer algorithm

Valuing forest ecosystem services and disservices - Case study of a protected area in India

This study estimates the value of forest ecosystem services provided by a protected area in a biodiversity hotspot in India. It also addresses some of the shortcomings identified in existing literature by estimating the value of several intangible benefits, and disservices of forests ignored in most valuation studies, as well as the added value from intact forests as compared to from alternative landscapes. Using primary and secondary data, and economic valuation techniques the study shows that the total net benefits provided by the Nagarhole national park in Karnataka, India are considerable. The added value of benefits from the park is also higher as compared to from alternative landscapes considering just three ecosystem services. If these are factored in decision making it could strengthen the economic case for conserving forests in tropical countries such as India where there is immense pressure to divert forests for meeting development needs.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.05.00

The behavioural effect of electronic home energy reports: Evidence from a randomised field trial in the United States

Behavioural interventions, such as informational nudges, have become an increasingly popular strategy in demand-side energy management. In particular, home energy reports (HERs) have been used to induce behavioural change among residential consumers. These HERs typically provide peer comparisons of energy use and information about energy savings opportunities. Despite the growing prevalence of HERs and a shift from postal to electronic delivery of HERs, the experimental evidence base of their effectiveness comes primarily from HERs delivered by post from a single vendor (Opower). Whether that evidence generalises to other programmes and to the electronic delivery of HERs is unclear. This paper reports new evidence for HER effectiveness from a 12-month field experiment with approximately 9,000 households that tested electronic HER programme in a deregulated American residential electricity market. Despite high non-compliance with HER delivery, the programme reduced household electricity consumption by 2.9%, 95% CI [-5.0%, -0.76%]. This estimated reduction is consistent with prior estimated impacts of HERs delivered by post and implies electronic HERs are at least as effective as reports delivered by post in reducing electricity consumption, while they are administered at a lower cost

From ignorance to evidence? The use of programme evaluation in conservation: Evidence from a Delphi survey of conservation experts.

Persistent gaps in the evidence base regarding the performance of conservation policies has put pressure on the conservation policy field to adopt 'best practice' programme evaluation methods. These are methods that account for the counterfactual and are able to attribute causality between a conservation policy and specific observable environmental and social impacts. Despite this pressure, use of such methods continues to be rare. This paper uses the Delphi technique to provide the first systematic assessment of the reasons behind the apparent hesitation of conservation practitioners to adopt rigorous policy impact evaluation methods. The Delphi study consisted of two online questionnaires conducted on conservation policy experts. The results presented confirm that the use of rigorous impact evaluation methods in conservation is still very limited but this, crucially, is not because conservationists are ignorant of these methods or their advantages. In fact, considerable effort is being made to develop and improve evidence standards but these efforts have largely been thwarted by large financial and time related constraints that mean even elementary evaluations are hard to achieve. The results from this Delphi study allow us to provide more realistic recommendations on how impact evaluation studies can be more widely embraced and implemented in conservation practice.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.05.06

What is the Nature and Social Norm within the Context of In-Group Favouritism?

In-group favouritism behaviour is observed everywhere around the world and previous research has shown that this behaviour is also easily triggered in a laboratory in various contexts. However, little is known about why different magnitudes of in-group favouritism are observed across societies. In this paper, we use a new allocation experiment to examine the nature of social norms within the context of in-group favouritism behaviour. In this experiment, a decision-maker has to decide only once how to allocate a fixed amount of resource between each of the three members of her own group and each of the three members of the out-group, whilst the decision- maker's own payoff is not affected by her decision. Three treatments are implemented: in the first treatment, only the members of the in-group can punish the decision-maker. In the second treatment, only the members of the out-group can punish the decision-maker. Finally, in the third treatment, only an independent third-party observer can punish the decision-maker. The aim of these treatments is to test whether there is a prevailing social norm which dominates the behavioural standard within the context of in-group favouritism and whether this mechanism varies across different subject pools, namely Thailand and the UK. Compared to a baseline treatment with no punishment opportunity, we observed that among the Thai subjects in-group favouritism significantly increased once the in-group members were given the opportunity to punish the decision-maker. The threat of punishment from a third-party punisher also increased in-group favouritism in Thailand. However, when only the out-group members had the opportunity to punish, no change in in-group favouritism behaviour was observed. On the contrary, within the British subject pool, when the out-group members had the opportunity to punish the decision-maker, we observed a decline in in-group favouritism as well as a marked shift towards an equitable outcome. The threats of punishments from the in-group members and the third-party, on the other hand, did not have any impact on in-group favouritism behaviour in the UK. The results suggest that within the Thai subject pool, there appears to be a prevailing `in-group bias norm' which is strongly enforced within and outside the group. Within the UK subject pool, however, it is less clear what the prevailing norm is. Whilst the threat of punishment from the out-group members who directly lose out from favouritism behaviour appeared to significantly reduce this behaviour, an uninvolved third-party was not willing to incur a cost to punish this behaviour. This interesting result indicates two possible explanations: first, in-group favouritism, in contrast to selfish or opportunistic behaviour, may not considered as a strong enough violation of a social norm; and second, the norm of egalitarianism within the context of favouritism may still be `evolving'.Third-party Punishmen

The value of urban green space in Britain: A methodological framework for spatially referenced benefit transfer

Author version of article. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10640-013-9665-8.© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013A meta-analysis of studies valuing urban greenspace in the UK is undertaken to yield spatially sensitive marginal value functions. A geographical information system (GIS) is used to apply these functions to spatial data detailing the location of such greenspace resources in five British cities and monetary values are computed. This procedure is repeated for the six future scenarios used in the UK National Ecosystem Assessment and changes in values calculated for the period 2010-60. These findings are then extrapolated to all major British cities to obtain per household and aggregate valuation estimates for each scenario both with and without distributional weights. While subject to a number of shortcomings in both data availability and methodology, this represents the first systematic and comprehensive attempt to value marginal changes in urban greenspace while accounting for spatial heterogeneity.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC