Zander Kerstin K, Ainsworth Gillian B, Meyerhoff Jürgen, Garnett Stephen T
The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT, Australia.
Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT, Australia.
PLoS One. 2014 Jun 23;9(6):e100411. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100411. eCollection 2014.
Threatened species programs need a social license to justify public funding. A contingent valuation survey of a broadly representative sample of the Australian public found that almost two thirds (63%) supported funding of threatened bird conservation. These included 45% of a sample of 645 respondents willing to pay into a fund for threatened bird conservation, 3% who already supported bird conservation in another form, and 15% who could not afford to pay into a conservation fund but who nevertheless thought that humans have a moral obligation to protect threatened birds. Only 6% explicitly opposed such payments. Respondents were willing to pay about AUD 11 annually into a conservation fund (median value), including those who would pay nothing. Highest values were offered by young or middle aged men, and those with knowledge of birds and those with an emotional response to encountering an endangered bird. However, the prospect of a bird going extinct alarmed almost everybody, even most of those inclined to put the interests of people ahead of birds and those who resent the way threatened species sometimes hold up development. The results suggest that funding for threatened birds has widespread popular support among the Australian population. Conservatively they would be willing to pay about AUD 14 million per year, and realistically about AUD 70 million, which is substantially more than the AUD 10 million currently thought to be required to prevent Australian bird extinctions.
濒危物种保护项目需要获得社会认可才能证明公共资金投入的合理性。一项针对澳大利亚公众具有广泛代表性样本的条件价值评估调查发现，近三分之二（63%）的人支持为濒危鸟类保护提供资金。其中包括645名受访者样本中的45%愿意为濒危鸟类保护基金捐款，3%已经以其他形式支持鸟类保护，还有15%无力为保护基金捐款，但他们认为人类有道义责任保护濒危鸟类。只有6%的人明确反对这种捐款。受访者愿意每年向保护基金捐款约11澳元（中位数），包括那些不会捐款的人。捐款意愿最高的是年轻或中年男性，以及那些了解鸟类的人，还有那些在遇到濒危鸟类时有情感反应的人。然而，鸟类灭绝的前景几乎让所有人感到震惊，甚至包括大多数倾向于将人类利益置于鸟类之上的人，以及那些对濒危物种有时阻碍发展的方式感到不满的人。结果表明，为濒危鸟类提供资金在澳大利亚民众中得到了广泛的支持。保守估计，他们每年愿意支付约1400万澳元，实际可能达到约7000万澳元，这大大超过了目前认为防止澳大利亚鸟类灭绝所需的1000万澳元。
