Preferences and values for afforestation: The effects of location and respondent understanding on forest attributes in a labelled choice experiment

Location can be a defining element of the preferences and values that the public holds for forests. Irish forest policy has undergone a number of developments in recent years with a current emphasis on sustainable forest management, which requires accounting for a wider suite of forest benefits and incorporating public preferences into forest management. This study employed a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate public preferences and values for management approaches to an extensive afforestation programme. Each afforestation alternative was labelled with a locational description to add to the realism of the study and to investigate their effect on preferences for forest management. In addition, a respondent's ability to identify tree types was tested and included in the analysis. The Irish public holds strong, positive views for afforestation and forest management, in particular for recreational access, which is influenced by forest location. In addition, a respondent's ability to identify tree types is shown to have a significant impact on how they treat this attribute in the DCE. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.