Browsing by Author "Nahuelhual, Laura"
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Item Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Dryland Forest Restoration in Central Chile(2012) Schiappacasse, Ignacio; Nahuelhual, Laura; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe; Echeverría Valenzuela, CristiánInvestment in natural capital restoration is increasing as a response to the widespread ecological degradation of dryland forests. However, finding efficient mechanisms to promote restoration among private landowners is a significant challenge for policy makers with limited financial resources. Furthermore, few attempts have been made to evaluate the costs and benefits of restoration interventions even though this information is relevant to orient decision making. Hence, our goal was to estimate the benefits and costs of dryland forest restoration by means of reforestation with native trees in a study area in central Chile. To determine benefits we applied a Contingent Valuation questionnaire that allowed for the calculation of willingness to pay measures. Restoration costs were calculated based on market prices following existing technical recommendations developed for the study area. The results showed that the restoration project had a negative NPV irrespective of the discount rate applied in the analysis. Thus, the NPV varied between -US$71,000 and -US$258,000. The NPV attained positive results only for negative discount rates (US$15,039 for -2%) and only when the national subsidy available for forest restoration was taken into account. This shows that landowners in Colliguay do not have incentives for carrying out restoration interventions due to a classic market failure: that in which ecosystems are mismanaged because many of their benefits are externalities from the perspective of landowners. Overall, these results stress the need for developing new compensation mechanisms and enhancing those in existence, with the aim of making restoration competitive with other land uses. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Labor as a welfare measure in contingent valuation: the value of a forest restoration project(2013) Schiappacasse, Ignacio; Vásquez Lavín, Felipe; Nahuelhual, Laura; Echeverría Valenzuela, CristiánLabor as a welfare measure in contingent valuation: the value of a forest restoration project. Cien. Inv. Agr. 40(1):69-84. Monetary contributions might not be appropriate welfare measures in contingent valuation (CV) when household incomes are very low. In such cases, willingness to pay (WTP) is restricted by a household’s ability to reduce its consumption of other goods to pay for the environmental good under valuation. Beneficiaries, however, may be willing to contribute their time to work on a project instead of paying money. In this context, we assess the benefits of ecosystem services restoration in a rural area of high conservation value in central Chile, using a CV study that includes two WTP questions, one for cash and another for labor payments. The results indicate that labor payments in the form of a number of working hours per week were highly accepted among people. In fact, in our sample, more people were willing to pay with labor time than with traditional cash payments. When we analyze the economic efficiency of the restoration project considering only cash payments, the net present value (NPV) is negative (-US$ 255,834), but when we consider the value of time payments, the NPV is US$629,980. The results indicate that this approach ought to be seriously considered in contingent valuation in similar social and economic contexts.