Public perceptions of wetland restoration benefits in Louisiana

Kim, T-G., and Petrolia, D. R. 2013. Public perceptions of wetland restoration benefits in Louisiana. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70: 1045–1054. We conducted a referendum-style contingent-valuation survey to investigate public perceptions of wetland restoration benefits including storm protection, ecosystem services, and recreational benefits and to analyse willingness to pay (WTP) for large-scale coastal restoration in Louisiana. Results of the ordered probit and binary probit models indicate that the public perceives both a strong relationship between increased wetland loss and an increased storm risk and a substantial likelihood of increased storm-protection benefits from wetland restoration. However, respondents expressed that they were less likely to believe the improved storm reduction benefits from restoration when they perceived a high frequency of category 3 or greater storms. Additionally, we found that hurricane protection benefits were the most important factor explaining WTP for wetland restoration for preventing expected future land losses in coastal Louisiana.