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Abstract
A choice experiment was used to analyse the preferences of residents neighbouring the Erstein polder (Alsace, France) for the different services that it provides. The heterogeneous nature of these preferences was shown through the use of a latent class model. Whilst the population as a whole values the improvement in water quality and the contribution, even partial, to flood protection, preferences differ when it comes to biodiversity and public access to the site. This study shows the potential conflicts between the different uses of the Erstein polder. These conflicts represent different communication themes for the site managers.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the French National Agency for Water and Aquatic Environments (ONEMA). The authors wish to thank participants at the Third Workshop on Non-Market Valuation (WONV), Nancy, France, 22--23rd June 2015, for their helpful comments. They are also grateful to Juliette Trautman, Sigi Doumbouya, and Laure Kuhfuss for their help.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. In that field, several lines of research are currently being followed, see for instance: environmental accounting (European Environment Agency Citation2006; Maes et al. Citation2016), integrated wetland conservation programs (Magyera and Genskow Citation2012), multi-criteria approaches (Koschke et al. Citation2012), indicators (van Oudenhoven et al. Citation2012; Haines-Young, Potschin, and Kienast Citation2012), typologies (de Groot et al. Citation2010) and cascade model (Haines-Young and Potschin Citation2010).
2. Source: internet site http://www.reserves-naturelles.org/foret-d-erstein.
3. People living close to the Polder are perfectly aware that this Polder was built in order to reduce the flood risk for the upstream populations, which can be seen as a principle of territorial solidarity.
4. The levels of these three first attributes were depicted using colour symbols.
6. All this material will be available by simple request to the authors.
7. Each respondent was asked to complete six different choice sets. We thus obtained 394 × 6=2,364 observations.
8. Results from the conditional logit model can be found in the appendix.
9. Other variables related to respondents’ socio-economic characteristics (age, household size, etc.), practices (frequency rate, etc.) and homes (ownership, previous flooding, etc.) were also tested. However, these do not impact choice probabilities.
10. When the Polder has to be submerged, there is consequent loss of game and reduction in hunting activities for which hunters get a rent reduction (see for instance the Erstein “municipality” council's minutes of 15 December 2014, http://www.ville-erstein.fr/dynamic/pv/aggp_pv_cm_15_dcembre_2014.pdf in French).
