Willingness to pay for ecological function regions protection based on a choice experiment method: a case study of the Shiwandashan nature reserve
The ecological function regions have enormous environmental and social value, and its protection and sustainable development need to sacrifice local economic development and local people's land development rights and interests. Therefore, it is important to study the willingness to pay for ecological protection in the ecological function region to calculate the amount of ecological compensation. Here, we conducted a choice experiment method and MNL model to explore this issue. The obtained results show that: 1. Respondents' willingness to pay for the attribute of environmental quality is strongest, followed by the area of the nature reserve, while the emphasis on development intensity is relatively weak in Model 1 and Model 2. 2. Education level (5.097) number of family members 0.429) industry (0.135) annual household income (0.089) and age (0.032) all significantly influence the willingness to pay. 3. According to the results of the CE method, respondents are willing to pay about CNY 441.66 for ecological protection per year.