An economic valuation of mangrove restoration in Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Mangrove Restoration programs Choice experiment Willingness to pay Brazil Mangrove forests are under considerable pressure in many developing countries and Brazil is not an exception to this problem. We investigate preferences for the restoration of mangrove areas in Brazil, using a choice experiment that varies the level and time of restoration. By interacting those attributes, we are able to identify nine potential scenarios that are expected to provide insight for policies and programs aimed to restore the threatened mangrove forest in the area. Conditional logit and scale heterogeneity mul-tinomial logit models are estimated to analyze the respondents' choices. Our findings indicate that, out of the nine scenarios, respondents prefer a moderate restoration (i.e. vegetation health improvement of existing mangrove forest area) in less than 10 years. There also is a strong preference for complete restoration in 11 to 20 years, with complete restoration entailing vegetation health improvements and extension of the mangrove forest area of 20%. Results suggest that respondents understand that there are tradeoffs between levels and time of restoration. In many tropical coastal countries, the abundance of mangrove forests has declined dramatically over time (Blasco et al. Brazil is not an exception to this problem. In recent years, the state of Rio de Janeiro has lost a considerable area of mangrove forest primarily due to deforestation and the implementation of urban development projects (Kjerve et al., 1997; Bernini and Rezende, 2011). In addition, shrimp aquaculture, pollution and other factors have taken a toll. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has identified many ecological services originating from mangroves, and demonstrates how coastal communities depend on these ecological services (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Although it is clear that restoring mangroves would increase social welfare in Brazil, it is not clear that this should be a current focus of policy. Other environmental problems (e.g. pollution of rivers, treatment of sewage, loss of rainforests, greenhouse gas emissions, and loss of savanna) as well as a litany of social problems (e.g. poor access to education and health care, poverty, poor infrastructure) all compete for budget priority. Environmental valuation has the potential to contribute to the determination of priorities, by demonstrating the relative importance of mangroves to the proximate populations. This paper examines the remaining mangroves in the Paraiba do Sul River estuary, located in the northern region of the Rio de Janeiro State. …