How much do people in Scotland value characteristics of marine and coastal areas

Executive Summary

This study was carried out to improve understanding of the economic value people place on key environmental and management characteristics of marine and coastal areas in Scotland. A stated-preferences choice experiment was designed to quantify this value.

An online survey questionnaire was designed in-line with best-practise guidance documents and expert support provided by the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at the University of East Anglia. Feedback and advice was also received by a Project Steering Group, comprised of scientists, economists and policy officials.

An initial survey design was pilot tested on a sample of 222 people, which provided useful insights to inform the final design. The final questionnaire had a conventional structure and included a choice experiment as well as additional questions on perceptions about marine and coastal areas, leisure visits and respondent’s socio-demographics.

In the choice experiment, respondents were asked to select their preferred option for alternative management policies, which were described in terms of 6 attributes:

• Size of area where change occurs
• Distance to coast
• Wildlife and habitats
• Type of restrictions
• Educational public display boards
• Annual household water charge increase

The choice experiment included a total of 36 choice cards which were used to describe alternative management options. In each choice card, two of the options included alternative management options and the other always involved no change at no additional cost. An example choice card is presented in Figure 1 and further details about the definitions used for each attribute and their levels are provided in Section 3 of this report.

A total of 986 complete responses were recorded. On average, respondents took 19 minutes to complete the survey. The survey sample was broadly representative of the Scottish population across age, sex and geographical area they live in (at the local authority level).

Respondents were asked a series of questions about their perceptions of the environmental condition and impact of human activities on marine and coastal areas in Scotland. When asked about the importance of marine industries to Scotland’s future, respondents felt that marine renewable energy was the most important. The oil & gas industry was considered by respondents to have the largest environmental impact.

Most respondents reported to have had positive personal experiences of Scotland’s marine wildlife and habitats, with 61% rating their experiences ‘very good’ or ‘good’. 19% of respondents thought that the environmental condition of marine and coastal areas in Scotland had improved in the past 5 years, while 36% thought it had stayed the same, 33% thought it had worsened and 11% said they did not know.

The majority of respondents (76%) had visited a marine or coastal area in Scotland in the last 12 months. 20% stated that although they had not visited in the last 12 months they had before and only 4% of respondents had never visited. ‘Enjoying the natural environment’, ‘Walking opportunities’ and ‘Being able to see wildlife in the area’ were the top 3 factors respondents considered when deciding which area to visit.

Overall, results from the choice experiment section of the survey suggest that people in Scotland are supportive of management policies in marine and coastal areas over doing nothing. Results indicate that people in Scotland hold significant values for management policies that result in larger areas changed, larger increases in the number and variety of wildlife and habitats, ‘low’ and ‘moderate’ levels of restrictions, and additional educational content. People who have visited a marine and coastal area in the last 12 months, do regular recreational activities, are younger or have a marine industrial connection tend to have stronger preferences for alternative management options over the status quo.

Econometric modelling of the choice experiment results has allowed for the estimation of household willingness to pay (WTP) for marginal changes in the attributes used to describe alternative management policies. WTP has only been reported for attributes that had a statistically significant influence on respondent’s choices. WTP estimates have been aggregated to give indicative total WTP values for the Scottish population (see Section 4 for more details):

• Households in Scotland are estimated to hold a total WTP of between £90m-£132m per year (£35-£52 per household) for management policies that result in a ‘large increase’ in wildlife and habitats, decreasing to £40m-£80m per year (£16-£32 per household) for a ‘medium’ increase.
• For management policies that introduce ‘low’ and ‘moderate’ restrictions on damaging human activities, households in Scotland are estimated to hold a total WTP of between £28m-£76m (£11-£30 per household) and £40m-£86m (£16-£34 per household) per year respectively.
• Households in Scotland are estimated to hold a total WTP around £20m-£49m per year (£8-£19 per household) to update existing and install additional education boards about wildlife and habitats around marine and coastal areas in Scotland.
• For every additional 1% of total sea area changed by management policies, households are estimated to hold a total WTP of between £2m-£8m per year (£1-£3 per household)^[1].

Expert support and advice to design and carry out this choice experiment has been received by CSERGE at the University of East Anglia. Further guidance has been provided through extensive discussions and feedback from the Project Steering Group. This has helped to produce robust results about how much people in Scotland value characteristics of marine and coastal areas.