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Abstract
Choice experiments (CE – otherwise known as Choice Modelling) have become a widespread
approach to environmental valuation in Australia, with many examples assessing the tradeoffs
between river catchment management and socio-economic impacts. There is, however,
limited information on the values of Australian estuaries. Furthermore, none of the existing
valuation studies address catchment management changes in Tasmania.
The CE study reported in this paper aims to elicit community preferences for the protection of
the rivers and estuary of the George catchment in north-eastern Tasmania. Results from
conditional and mixed logit models show that respondents are, on average, willing to pay
between $2.47 and $4.46 for a km increase in native riverside vegetation and between $9.35
and $10.97 per species for the protection of rare native plants and animals, ceteris paribus.
The results are ambiguous about respondents’ preferences for estuary seagrass area. This
study further shows significant differences between logit models when accounting for
individual heterogeneity and repeated choices made by individual respondents.