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Socioeconomic and ecological indicators in willingness to accept compensation for the conservation of medicinal plants in a tropical dry forest

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Abstract

The contingent valuation method employs a hypothetical scenario to record a person’s declared preference with regard to their willingness to pay for an environmental asset or willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for not using it. Many studies have evaluated the inclination to conserve watersheds, forest areas, or certain species. In this study, we reported the economical values of medicinal species based on the perceptions of locals living within a protected area in a seasonal dry tropical forest in Northeastern Brazil. Moreover, we assessed the effects of socioeconomic variables (gender, family income, and family size) on the WTA compensation for not using the species. We interviewed 96 household heads from seven communities to obtain their socioeconomic data and WTA values. Additionally, we used data from a plant inventory to gather information on species abundance. We found that the selected socioeconomic variables are a poor predictor of the WTA values. Our findings also demonstrate that women accept lower WTA values to not use some species. Additionally, individuals from bigger families accept lower WTA values to not use just one of the plant species. Species abundance did not influence informants’ WTA values. Generally, informants overestimated bids, which may hinder biodiversity conservation. Socioeconomic and ecological factors may not have an influence on WTA values in communities that inhabit protected areas.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the residents of the communities that participated in this study, the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for the financial support to the first author and the scholarships granted to the other author. We are particularly grateful to Dr. Leonardo Chaves for the statistical analysis support. The Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) provided transportation support for field trips, and the National Institute of Science and Technology (INCT) in Ethnobiology, Bioprospection and Nature Conservation provided assistance with field logistics. RST stage of data collection; the authors also wish to thank the involved INCT researchers.

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001. Contribution of the INCT Ethnobiology, Bioprospecting and Nature Conservation was certified by CNPq, with financial support from FACEPE (Foundation for Support to Science and Technology of the State of Pernambuco—Grant number: APQ-0562-2.01/17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação Em Botânica, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Dois Irmãos, PE, 52171900, Brazil

    Marcelânio Laurentino

  2. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Departamento de Botânica, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, PE, 50670-901, Brazil

    Elcida de Lima Araújo

  3. Laboratório de Estudos Etnobiológicos, Universidade de Pernambuco, Nazaré da Mata, PE, 55800-000, Brazil

    Marcelo Alves Ramos

  4. Laboratório de Ecologia E Evolução de Sistemas Socioecológicos (LEA), Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, Recife, Pernambuco, 50670-901, Brazil

    Marcelânio Laurentino, Maria Clara Bezerra Tenório Cavalcanti, Paulo Henrique Santos Gonçalves & Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque

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  1. Marcelânio Laurentino
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  2. Elcida de Lima Araújo
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  3. Marcelo Alves Ramos
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  5. Paulo Henrique Santos Gonçalves
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  6. Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [ML]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [ML], and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Funding acquisition and supervision was provided by [UPA]. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque.

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Conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics approval

The project was submitted to the Ethics Committee of the University of Pernambuco and approved under the CAAE number—93470618.1.0000.5207. The collection of and access to plant species information inside the Conservation Unit was approved by the Biodiversity Authorization and Information System (SISBIO) (registration number: 68414-1).

Consent to participate

All the informants who agreed to participate in the study were invited to sign the Informed Consent Form (ICF), thus fulfilling requirements of the institutional Ethics Committee in Research in accordance with the National Health Council of Brazil (Resolution No. 466/2012).

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The participants provided consent to publish.

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Laurentino, M., de Lima Araújo, E., Ramos, M.A. et al. Socioeconomic and ecological indicators in willingness to accept compensation for the conservation of medicinal plants in a tropical dry forest. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 4471–4489 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01608-5

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