Journal
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Volume 14, Issue -, Pages 158-169Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.01.001
Keywords
Ecosystem services; Marginal change; Willingness to pay; River rehabilitation; Sustainability
Categories
Funding
- Territories of Rivers Action Plans project [1006 R4 TRAP]
- INTERREG IVC programme
- European Union's Regional Development Fund
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The need to assess the societal consequences of human actions impacting the environment has led to the concept of ecosystem services (ESS), which can be valued in socio-economic terms to communicate the ecologically-based costs and benefits of management choices. Quantifying the usually-neglected value of ESS should lead to better awareness of the societal importance of ecosystems and more balanced decision-making. We examine the case of the rehabilitation project of the River Pajakkajoki (Finland), aiming to improve conditions for fish spawning and increase the recreational attractiveness of natural areas along the river. We investigated how the rehabilitation changed ESS provision and the value of such change, focusing on recreational E55 due to data availability. We conducted an economic valuation of recreational [SS based on questionnaires administered to both locals and non-locals, analyzed by combining revealed and stated preference methods. We show that the rehabilitation generated great benefits: the estimated increase in recreational [SS value was 40D-144.7 /personlyear. with slight differences between residents and non-residents. When scaling up this value to all the visitors of the area, the benefits of river restoration were estimated to compensate for the project costs in approximately 3-10 years. justifying investments in restoration from a societal perspective. (C) 2015 Elsevier By. All rights reserved,
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