Effects of information provision on willingness to pay for conservation of alpine plants in Japan

Information provision is essential for obtaining the cooperation of the general public for the conservation of unfamiliar ecosystems towards a sustainable (e.g. carbon-neutral and nature-positive) society. The purpose of this study is to identify effective ways of raising public awareness for ecosystem conservation. We explored the interaction between the manner of information provision (i.e. the medium through which and how much in-formation is provided) and the personal attributes (e.g. environmental attitude) of the recipients on their will-ingness to pay (WTP) for conservation using Japanese alpine plants as the subject. Discrete choice experiments using an online survey were conducted with public citizens aged 20-69 years across Japan, and data from 8457 respondents were analysed. The data analysis was performed in two steps: 1) estimating individual WTP and 2) exploring factors affecting WTP. The results demonstrated that individual WTP was 135,798 & PLUSMN; 82,840 (mean & PLUSMN; standard deviation) JPY per person for a lifetime. The WTP increased when information was provided in the form of short texts and graphics for those proactive about nature conservation, but increased more when video in-formation was provided to those reactive about nature conservation. The study shows that ecosystem conser-vation groups need to adapt the amount and format of information for target audiences (e.g. Generation Z youth, who are more sustainability-oriented and prefer to accomplish more in less time).

Automated summary

Information provision is crucial for garnering public cooperation in conserving unfamiliar ecosystems towards a sustainable society. This study examines the relationship between the manner of information provision and personal attributes of recipients in influencing their willingness to pay for ecosystem conservation using Japanese alpine plants as a case study. The results show that adapting the amount and format of information according to target audiences is essential for successful conservation efforts.