Biodiv Sci ›› 2009, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (3): 257-265.  DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1003.2009.08311

• Editorial • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Economic value evaluation of conserving the rare and endangered species affected by the Three Gorges Project

Jianhong Xiao1,*(), Min Wang1,2, Guoqing Shi2, Qingdong Yu1, Chunmei Mao2, Dongjing Chen1   

  1. 1 International Business College, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071
    2 State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098
  • Received:2008-11-28 Accepted:2009-03-30 Online:2009-05-20 Published:2009-05-20
  • Contact: Jianhong Xiao

Abstract:

We designed the payment card questionnaires to survey the willingness to pay (WTP) of people using the contingent valuation method (CVM), in an attempt to evaluate the economic values of conserving the rare and endangered species influenced by the Three Gorges Project (TGP), including Lipotes vexillifer,Psephurus gladius,Acipenser dabryanus,Myxocyprinus asiaticus,Acipenser sinensis,Adiantum reniformevar. sinense,Myricaria laxiflora and Chuanminshen violaceum. The employees in the state-owned units and other companies from 31 provinces/autonomous regions were surveyed. A total of 1,036 valid surveys were collected in June 2008. The result indicated that 70.08% of the respondents were willing to pay for the conservation of the rare and endangered species. The average WTP bids of all the respondents were 127.82 RMB yuan per year. We also analyzed the correlation between the respondents’ characteristics and their WTP bids using the contingency table and the Chi-square test for independence. The results indicated that WTP bids were mainly affected by age, education level, profession, personal income, the awareness of TGP, the attention paid to TGP, and the knowledge of the influence of TGP on the rare and endangered species. In conclusion, the economic values of conserving the rare and endangered species affected by TGP is 82.19×108RMB yuan per year. This study may provide basic information for the further policy-making of the conservation of the species in the Three Gorges area.

Key words: the Three Gorges Project (TGP), contingent valuation method (CVM), rare and endangered species, willingness to pay (WTP), WTP bids, economic value evaluation