Stated preference methods are frequently employed to measure people's willingness to pay (WTP) for
ecosystem services. However, these techniques are also criticised for following a simplified approach, which often
ignores the role of complex psychological and sociological factors, such as general environmental attitudes and place
identity ...
Stated preference methods are frequently employed to measure people's willingness to pay (WTP) for
ecosystem services. However, these techniques are also criticised for following a simplified approach, which often
ignores the role of complex psychological and sociological factors, such as general environmental attitudes and place
identity beliefs. By means of a discrete choice experiment exercise, we explored the influence of general environmental
attitudes and place identity perceptions on WTP, taking peatland restoration in Scotland as a case study. Our research
adds to the existing literature by providing a more nuanced picture of the determinants of WTP and by exploring and
mapping the distribution of the estimated welfare measures. Our results, obtained from the estimation of hybrid choice
models, show that people with more positive environmental attitudes and greater attachment to peatlands and
Scotland tend to display higher WTP for peatland restoration. However, differences exist across respondents, depending
on their socio-demographic profile and the geographical area. A better understanding of the heterogeneity of
preferences for ecosystem services is helpful to guide more efficient policy design and to inform policy-makers about
the distributional impacts of planned policies for equity considerations in project appraisal.