Citizens' preferences for research programs on forest genetic resources: A case applied to Pinus pinaster Ait. in Spain
Introduction
Programs for the conservation and breeding of forest genetic resources contribute to increasing the resilience and adaptability of forests to the uncertain effects of global change. They can improve the productivity of the forest sector by contributing both wood and non-wood forest products to the forest-industry chain in greater quantity and/or quality (Jansson et al., 2017). Moreover these programs also contribute to having healthy forests (Trumbore et al., 2015), i.e. resilience to biotic and abiotic risks, conserving genetic diversity, improving the habitat and landscape, etc. (Stenger et al., 2009; Loomis et al., 2019), i.e. these programs include a wide range of existence values (Krutilla, 1967). In the prior literature on economic assessment, considerable attention was paid to the study of biodiversity (Bartkowski et al., 2015), which is directly related to non-use values. Likewise, genetic conservation has been analyzed in various contexts, such as livestock farming (Roessler et al., 2007; Siddo et al., 2015), energy (Rollins et al., 2015a, Rollins et al., 2015b; Butkowski et al., 2020), and food (González et al., 2009), among others.
Concerning forestry, there are different analyses from a financial perspective regarding the implementation of the programs (Talbert et al., 1985; Heffner et al., 2010) and the end-users (Ahtikoski et al., 2012; Jansson et al., 2017). For example, Jansson et al. (2017) show that improved seed material would be financially viable for private forest owners in Finland. These breeding programs are financed to a large extent with public funds for research, development, and innovation (R&D&i). Given that a majority of these research programs is financed by society as a whole through taxes, it seems scientifically reasonable to study citizens' preferences for programs for the improvement and conservation of forest genetic resources. In this sense, research on the total economic value of programs for the conservation of forest genetic resources may provide a valuable contribution to policy-making and the sustainable management of forest systems (Ahtiainen and Pouta, 2011; Fady et al., 2016).
While social planners should establish research priorities based on the criterion of maximizing social welfare, they are sometimes governed by other criteria, such as maximizing votes. And after citizens cast their votes, they usually do not participate again in public decision-making processes, despite the fact that mechanisms have been developed for this purpose, such as citizen consultations, participatory budgeting, and others (Font et al., 2015). Along this line, stated preference methods such as choice experiments can contribute to capturing the social demand for the various components of these programs, thereby providing information about aspects that contribute to social welfare to a greater extent.
Choice experiments have been applied at length to the economic study of the multitude of goods and services produced by forests, including not only goods and services that are marketed but those that are not, which therefore do not have a direct market price (Loomis et al., 2019). Such experiments have been applied to various ecosystem services (including supply, regulation, or cultural services), in which they analyze the citizens' preferences for a number of forest goods and services. However, there are few studies that have focused on analyzing citizens' preferences for a research program. One exception is the experimental study by Florio and Giffoni (2017), in which they applied the contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness to pay for a basic research project; or the study by Jin et al. (2019) analyzing the willingness to pay for the research and development of solar energy in China.
This article presents novel results from a discrete choice experiment focused on pine forest systems in Spain. Specifically, Pinus pinaster Ait. was selected as the key species because (i) it is a species for which there is abundant ecological information (regions of provenance, silviculture models, etc.); (ii) breeding programs have existed for this species since the mid-20th century; (iii) it has great economic importance for the forestry sector; and (iv) it is distributed throughout the majority of the Iberian peninsula, which makes it a common species from a social point of view.
The discrete choice experiment allows us to obtain information about the trade-offs made by citizens regarding the various characteristics of an operational research program, such as improvements in production (quantity and quality of wood), resistance to biotic risks (plagues and diseases), abiotic risks (drought), control of genetic diversity, and effects on the biodiversity of pine forests. Moreover, we discuss how the willingness to pay for the R&D program on forest genetic resources can be biased due to hypothetical and desirability bias. In this sense, we perform several analyses taking into account the individual's response time as a proxy of carelessness.
As we can see, this research is a clear example of an economic analysis of public goods because, as a whole, it considers aspects related to the forest as a generator of public goods. At the same time, it represents an operational research program whose output can be transferred to society as non-rival and non-excludable, thereby constituting a public good that generates knowledge on its own (Stiglitz, 1999). Therefore, this study presents novel information that can be useful for the orientation, planning, and design of public programs for the improvement and conservation of forest genetic resources.
Section snippets
Discrete choice experiments
A discrete choice experiment (DCE) is a stated preference method (Hanley et al., 1998; Louviere et al., 2000; Bateman et al., 2002; Carson and Louviere, 2011; Johnston et al., 2017) whose origins go back to mathematical and statistical psychology (Luce and Tukey, 1964) and the theoretical basis of Lancaster's consumer theory (1966), which establishes that the utility provided by a good can be broken down into the separable utilities of its attributes. The link to microeconomic decision models
General results
The results of the WTP space model are shown in Table 2. The status quo alternative was selected 12.04% of the time, and only 4.17% of the individuals always selected this opt-out option. Regarding the cost of the program, €10, €20€, €30, €40, €50, and €60 were selected in 21.87%, 15.78%, 14.38%, 8.14%, 11.66%, and 16.11% of the responses, respectively. The model presents a McFadden pseudo-R2 of 20.53%, a value that is in line what is recommended in literature (e.g. Louviere et al., 2000). The
Discussion
Breeding programs of pine species in general and of P. pinaster in particular date back to the mid-20th century, and they intensified in the mid 80s (Bouffier et al., 2013). Initially, the characters that received the greatest attention by breeders were wood production and quality. With the passage of time and given the evidence of global change (climate, economic, social, etc.), new desirable characters were identified (Burley, 2001; Fady et al., 2016), such as resistance to biotic and abiotic
Conclusions
Spanish society experiences a positive welfare change through research on the conservation and improvement of forest genetic resources. Such research, in addition to improving the economic performance of forest plantations, also contributes to increasing the resilience and adaptability of forests to the effects of climate change. Among these effects, society especially values having healthy forests, such as those that are resistant to biotic risks like pitch canker caused by F. circinatum in P.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This study is framed within projects RTA2013-00048-C03-01 and RTA2017-00063-C04-01 funded by the Spanish National Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology (INIA) and the B4EST project funded by the European Commission. The authors would like to thank the helpful comments and insights from Rafa Zas, María Martínez-Jauregui, Rosa Raposo, and Maje Serra-Varela; the graphical design by Jesús de Miguel; the GIS support by David Sánchez de Ron, Jesús Martínez, and Paco Auñón.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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