TY - JOUR
T1 - At a conservation crossroad
T2 - The bahoruco-jaragua-enriquillo biosphere reserve in the dominican republic
AU - Gómez-Valenzuela, Víctor
AU - Alpízar, Francisco
AU - Ramirez, Katerin
AU - Bonilla-Duarte, Solhanlle
AU - van Lente, Harro
PY - 2021/10/5
Y1 - 2021/10/5
N2 - This paper assesses the Dominican Republic’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a conservation, restoration, and sustainable development program for the Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve (RBJBE). Created in 2002, the RBJBE covers approximately 4858 km2, of which approximately 900 km2 correspond to the sea surface. With three core conservation zones, the RBJBE constitutes a complex space with a history of conflicts rooted in exploiting natural resources and social and economic issues. At the same time, it is a biodiversity hotspot of global importance. We present a Contingent Valuation Method to estimate the WTP for a conservation and restoration program called PROBIOSFERA. The non-parametric and parametric estimates of the WTP are DOP 165.00 (≈USD 2.94) and DOP 181.88 (≈USD 3.25), respectively. The socioeconomic variables that positively affect the WTP are income level, educational level, and age. The ecosystem services that are statis-tically related to WTP are the provisioning and supporting services. Regardless of the monetary valuation scenarios defined, the estimated annual monetized aggregated welfare associated with the RBJBE for Dominican society is DOP 7.2 billion (≈USD 128.1 million).
AB - This paper assesses the Dominican Republic’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a conservation, restoration, and sustainable development program for the Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve (RBJBE). Created in 2002, the RBJBE covers approximately 4858 km2, of which approximately 900 km2 correspond to the sea surface. With three core conservation zones, the RBJBE constitutes a complex space with a history of conflicts rooted in exploiting natural resources and social and economic issues. At the same time, it is a biodiversity hotspot of global importance. We present a Contingent Valuation Method to estimate the WTP for a conservation and restoration program called PROBIOSFERA. The non-parametric and parametric estimates of the WTP are DOP 165.00 (≈USD 2.94) and DOP 181.88 (≈USD 3.25), respectively. The socioeconomic variables that positively affect the WTP are income level, educational level, and age. The ecosystem services that are statis-tically related to WTP are the provisioning and supporting services. Regardless of the monetary valuation scenarios defined, the estimated annual monetized aggregated welfare associated with the RBJBE for Dominican society is DOP 7.2 billion (≈USD 128.1 million).
KW - Biosphere reserve
KW - Contingent valuation
KW - Dominican Republic
KW - Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo
U2 - 10.3390/su131911030
DO - 10.3390/su131911030
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116632574
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 13
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
IS - 19
M1 - 11030
ER -
