Distance-decay effect on willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation: The case of a megadiverse protected area

Abstract

This research addresses the case of Manu National Park (PNM) in Peru, one of the most biodiverse protected areas worldwide. Applying the choice experiments (CE) method, based on 1.164 surveys in this country, the positive decay effect on the willingness to pay (WTP) was determined for the conservation of the PNM, at least for most of the attributes analyzed. This suggests that in cases of megadiverse areas, WTP for conservation may not be inversely related to the interviewee's distance since the effect of biodiversity conservation interest would exceed the effect of disinterest associated with distance.