Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia

The incorporation of latent psychological factors in wetland valuation studies may improve our understanding of why some people value ecosystem services while others do not. This article focuses on public preferences for enhanced protection of the Setiu Wetland in Malaysia and explores the influence...

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Main Author: Hassan, Suziana
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2017
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/1/Environmental%20attitudes%20and%20preference%20for%20wetland%20conservation%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
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author Hassan, Suziana
author_facet Hassan, Suziana
author_sort Hassan, Suziana
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The incorporation of latent psychological factors in wetland valuation studies may improve our understanding of why some people value ecosystem services while others do not. This article focuses on public preferences for enhanced protection of the Setiu Wetland in Malaysia and explores the influence of environmental attitude on preference and the willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland conservation. The study reported here employs a discrete choice experiment to investigate household's WTP for a set of wetland attributes. A scale-adjusted latent class (SALC) model is applied to identify a latent preference structure combining choice attributes with attitude measures derived from the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP). We identified four NEP components in the respondent population to integrate with SALC model, and this revealed four latent classes and two scale classes which varied in their preferences. Class 1 was largely against wetland protection, although it showed a flooding preference, and was more likely to be ‘Anthropocentric’ but less likely to be ‘Biocentric’. Class 2 had a positive preference for all attributes, and was more likely to be ‘Biocentric’. Class 3 did not refer to any of the NEP components. A handful of responses in Class 4 were respondents more likely to be in the ‘Risk of overuse’ group and less likely to be ‘Anthropocentric’. The result suggests that natural resource managers need to evaluate people's concerns over environmental protection to understand potentially conflicting views across populations.
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spelling upm-617452019-01-23T01:12:28Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/ Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia Hassan, Suziana The incorporation of latent psychological factors in wetland valuation studies may improve our understanding of why some people value ecosystem services while others do not. This article focuses on public preferences for enhanced protection of the Setiu Wetland in Malaysia and explores the influence of environmental attitude on preference and the willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland conservation. The study reported here employs a discrete choice experiment to investigate household's WTP for a set of wetland attributes. A scale-adjusted latent class (SALC) model is applied to identify a latent preference structure combining choice attributes with attitude measures derived from the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP). We identified four NEP components in the respondent population to integrate with SALC model, and this revealed four latent classes and two scale classes which varied in their preferences. Class 1 was largely against wetland protection, although it showed a flooding preference, and was more likely to be ‘Anthropocentric’ but less likely to be ‘Biocentric’. Class 2 had a positive preference for all attributes, and was more likely to be ‘Biocentric’. Class 3 did not refer to any of the NEP components. A handful of responses in Class 4 were respondents more likely to be in the ‘Risk of overuse’ group and less likely to be ‘Anthropocentric’. The result suggests that natural resource managers need to evaluate people's concerns over environmental protection to understand potentially conflicting views across populations. Elsevier 2017-06 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/1/Environmental%20attitudes%20and%20preference%20for%20wetland%20conservation%20in%20Malaysia.pdf Hassan, Suziana (2017) Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia. Journal For Nature Conservation, 37. 133 - 145. ISSN 1617-1381; ESSN: 1618-1093 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138117302157 10.1016/j.jnc.2017.04.004
spellingShingle Hassan, Suziana
Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia
title Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia
title_full Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia
title_fullStr Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia
title_short Environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in Malaysia
title_sort environmental attitudes and preference for wetland conservation in malaysia
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/61745/1/Environmental%20attitudes%20and%20preference%20for%20wetland%20conservation%20in%20Malaysia.pdf