Information, wildlife valuation, conservation: experiments and policy

The authors use experimental surveys to investigate the association between individuals' knowledge of particular wildlife species and their stated willingness to allocate funds to conserve each. The nature of variations in these allocations between species (e.g., their dispersion) as participants' knowledge increases is examined. Factors influencing these changes are suggested. Willingness-to-pay allocations are found not to measure the economic value of species, but are shown to be policy relevant. The results indicate that poorly known species, e.g., in remote areas, may obtain relatively less conservation support than they deserve. (JEL Q51, Q57, Q58)
I. INTRODUCTION Wild biodiversity decline is of global policy concern (McNeely and Scherr, 2003, Ch. 2), and economists have given increasing attention to it. Nevertheless, economists remain uncertain of the [...]