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Simple Summary: Local communities living on the edge of protected areas often experience negative impacts on their livelihoods due to wildlife. These situations threaten support for long-term conservation of wildlife and wild habitats so a key for conservation sustainability should be based on implementing socially accepted and economically sustainable mitigation practices. For successful design and implementation of mitigation strategies, it is vital to engage local communities and understand their preferences and previous experiences. In this study, we present a choice experiment as a tool to analyze local farmer preferences for the most common farm-based solutions to reduce African elephant crop damage. Results show that there are significant differences among responses triggered by farmers' previous experience with elephants and socioeconomic situation, with a marked spatial distribution among respondents. This methodology, based on a choice modeling approach considering the differential availability of resources and previous experience with elephants or other wildlife, is highly applicable, with small changes in other areas where wildlife competes with local communities for resources. This approach also represents a suitable instrument for identifying stakeholders' preferences in each specific context. Local communities surrounding wildlife corridors and natural reserves often face challenges related to human–wildlife coexistence. To mitigate the challenges and ensure the long-term conservation of wildlife, it is important to engage local communities in the design of conservation strategies. By conducting 480 face-to-face interviews in 30 villages along and adjacent to the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor (Tanzania), we quantified farmers' preferences for farm-based measures to mitigate African elephant damage using choice experiments. Results show that farmers considered no action the least preferred option, revealing that they are open to trying different measures. The most preferred management strategy matched with the preferences of wildlife rangers in the area, suggesting low concern about the potential conflicts between stakeholders. However, a latent class model suggests that there are significant differences among responses triggered by farmers' previous experience with elephants, the intensity of the elephant damage, and the socioeconomic situation of the farmer. Results show a marked spatial distribution among respondents, highlighting the benefits of zone management as conflicts were found to be highly context dependent. Understanding the human dimension of conservation is essential for the successful planification and implementation of conservation strategies. Therefore, the development and broad utilization of methodologies to gather specific context information should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shea products in Benin (West Africa) are produced in a low-developed agroindustry, but they are estimated to be the country’s third largest export. The nut harvesting and quality guaranteeing in the butter process can only be achieved through improvements in the value chain, thus making it more attractive for stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to provide keys to a better product valorization, obtain a significant increase in household incomes based on shea butter marketing opportunities, and offer competitive products at the local and regional markets. Different markets were designed to catch processors and consumers’ preferences for two improved shea products: butter and nuts in Northern Benin. An open-ended contingent valuation (CV) was applied, and the willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) were estimated by using a typical ordinary least squares (OLS) modelling approach. On local markets in Benin, the color, length, and weight of the nuts, as well as the color, smell, and texture of shea butter significantly influence, respectively, the processors’ willingness to accept and the consumers’ willingness to pay for a specific quality level. An increase in price would ensure the quality of the shea butter and would be covered by the premium to be paid by consumers. Certification design and the development of shea resources management and conservation programs should include ethnic preferences and consider gender, to avoid reducing women’s profits in the shea butter local market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the willingness to pay of Costa Rican consumers for three environmental certifications in the coffee market, namely, Carbon Neutral, Fairtrade, and ISO 14001. A face-to-face survey was applied to 1191 Costa Rican inhabitants. The results show that Costa Rican consumers are willing to pay price premiums around 30% for all the considered environmental certifications. In addition, a Cragg's hurdle model shows that household income, the level of education, and environmental or community activism increase the likelihood of consumers paying price premiums for environmental certifications, while men are less likely to pay than women. It was also found that the size of the price premiums that respondents are willing to pay are positively related to income, gender (female), and education, and negatively related to age. Once the effect of socioeconomic variables has been controlled for, we conclude that consumers are more willing to pay for the CN certification than for the other two. The results can be useful for participants in the coffee value chain; coffee producers can use environmental certifications both to enhance their participation in green markets, particularly in developing countries, and to improve their environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a less-favored area such as the Sahel, promoting sustainable management, breeding, and conservation of forestry resources would result in improvements for agroforestry systems and food security. A contingent ranking exercise allowed us to estimate the preferences and the values given by the rural population to the attributes that would be comprised in a conservation program. The resulting preferred program is farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) based on the species Adansonia digitata (baobab), with plantation, stone bunds, or tassa, and selected or bred seeds. The proposed actions to improve the tree density and the seed quality were highly valued by the respondents. Nevertheless, no clear differences were found between tassa and stone bunds, or FMNR and plantation. The main effects of the program, according to the surveyed population, include an increase in crop production and soil conservation, and higher income from tree products. This study allowed us to identify the program that would provide the greatest well-being for farmers, since it would allow them to simultaneously improve both the production of their crops and the production of the woody food species. It was shown that farmers were particularly willing to contribute to a program based on baobab, mainly because its products are used for food in the home and can be sold in markets. In this sense, the yield and production of the system would be improved by increasing the number of baobab trees. Farmers would contribute to this production system and would be willing to invest sustainable effort in the long term. The conservation and breeding program can be directed at conserving and propagating the genetic resources of A. digitata in an initial phase, selecting trees with good production, growth, and adaptation characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of natural forests in Costa Rica allows timber extraction in so far as it is guaranteed that the logging activities comply with diverse Sustainability Principles, Criteria and Indicators (PCIs). These are hierarchical and complex systems used, ex-ante in the formulation and approval of the Management Plan but have not been used for ex-post evaluation of managed forests. Development of sustainability evaluation systems that include few criteria is highly recommended. In that sense, the choice experiments contribute to simplification of the initial system of decision making, complementing a complex system of PCIs that permits detailed analysis of the management units. In this study, a choice experiment was included in a Delphi application and 5 key variables were identified to evaluate the sustainability of managed natural forests. These variables are, in order of importance—technical, legal and administrative conditions; external financing conditions; production performance; costs of preparing the Management Plan; and payment mechanisms for environmental services. The definition of these variables confirms not only that the technical, legal and administrative conditions are critical for sustainability but also that they could reflect the type of governance involved in sustainability forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plantations with alien forest species could be a major way for invasive plant and animal species to become introduced and naturally established in a territory, but the sensitivity of plantations with native forest species to invasive plant and animal species is still unknown. This paper studies the probability of the presence and the richness of invasive species of three different taxa (plants, birds, and mammals) in pine forests of southwestern Europe. To do so, the relative contribution from natural and planted forests is analysed to explain the presence and the richness of invasive species in 3950 cells (10 km × 10 km) covering Spain after controlling for the possible effects of variables related to geography, climate, land use, landscape, and human pressure on the environment. Our results show that man’s influence on the establishment of invasive species is notable. However, those forests that are the most intensely managed by man, such as pine plantations with native species, seem less susceptible to the establishment and propagation of invasive species. Reasons may be found in those planted pine forests being closely monitored, controlled, and managed by man. Therefore, it is argued that efforts related to the early warning systems of invasive species should be focused on natural pine forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]