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The value of additional central flyway wetlands in Nebraska's Rainwater Basin: Three essays
Abstract
Nebraska's Rainwater Basin (RWB) wetlands are recognized internationally as a significant wetland complex, providing habitat to North America's central flyway migratory waterfowl. At the turn of the century, this region encompassed some 100,000 acres and by the early 1990s only approximately 34,000 remained. The objective of this study is to use the contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the value of the RWB wetland region and to determine if willingness-to-pay (WTP) varies significantly with the size of the government wetland acquisition program. Finally, this study estimates welfare changes given referendum based taxation scenarios. During 1996, a closed-ended, double bounded CVM questionnaire was mailed to 2,400 Nebraska households. A response rate of 46% was obtained. The questionnaires were stratified such that bids and changes in the scope or size of the hypothetical program varied. The distribution of WTP in the population was modeled directly using both the Weibull and log-normal distributions. The Weibull model demonstrated a better fit. The median and mean WTP estimates of additional taxes were $4.96 and \$24.23, respectively. Significant variables which positively influence a household's WTP include: whether they've visited the RWB; whether they camp or birdwatch; whether they contribute to environmental organizations; income; and education. Significant variables that negatively influence a household's WTP include: household location relative to the RWB region; agricultural income; age; and household size. In terms of scope, acreage or program size variables were insignificant, indicating that changes in WTP scope could not be identified within this household sample. The sample responses were corrected for bias in terms of higher education and income, yielding weighted mean and median WTP estimates of $21.05 and \$4.17, respectively. Welfare analysis showed the net social value to Nebraskans of a 41,000 acre RWB wetland acquisition program was about $8 million (net of the social opportunity cost of these wetlands).
Subject Area
Agricultural economics|Environmental science
Recommended Citation
Poor, P. Joan, "The value of additional central flyway wetlands in Nebraska's Rainwater Basin: Three essays" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9812358.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9812358