Ecological restoration is increasingly called on to provide ecosystem services to people in addition to safeguarding habitat and protecting biodiversity. A question is whether people’s attitudes about the goals of restoration have caught up with this shift in focus. We investigated willingness to pay for restoration in a large, representative sample (n=1903) of the Australian public, by means of a survey. Respondents were shown a scenario in which restoration provided multiple benefits, including biodiversity, water provision, carbon sequestration, and recreation opportunities, as well as a scenario in which only biodiversity goals could be met.
Results/Conclusions
Willingness to pay was higher in the multiple benefits scenario. We also found trends of greater willingness to pay among people who expected to personally benefit from the ecosystem services provided or who were less inclined to see restoration as involving significant disservices, such as increased fire risk. Finally, we found that willingness to pay for restoration was more strongly associated with altruistic and biospheric values rather than hedonistic or egoistic values, and more strongly associated with preservationist than utilizationist environmental attitudes.