Assessing willingness to pay for marine and coastal ecosystems: A Case Study in Greece

The achievement of good environmental status (GES) of marine and coastal ecosystem services is specified in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This paper uses the choice experiment methodology (CE) to estimate the value of non-market benefits of marine and coastal ecosystem. Non-market benefits are rarely considered in marine planning and management. Assessing respondents’ willingness to pay in order to contribute in the development of marine planning and management implies that changes in marine and ecosystem services in Greece should be considered. Using appropriate econometric methods the empirical results show government trust and willingness to pay is directly linked. The results demonstrate also that preferences are heterogeneous with changes in certain marine and coastal attributes.