CVM for Taihu Lake based on ecological functions of wetlands restoration,and ability to pay and willingness to pay studies

Lake wetlands are important natural ecosystemswith ecological functions and biodiversity.The Contingent Valuation Method(CVM),which is useful for assessing the value of non-market resources,has been used for quantitative assessment of the non-use value of restoring ecological functions of wetlands,and to explore the ability to pay and willingness to pay(WTP) mechanisms.The following results are shown:(1) the confidence level from the comprehensive survey of WTP is 2.652,which demonstrates high credibility;while the distribution obtained is an irregular partial normal distribution,the WTP median and mean are shown to be reproducible,and regional concentration of payment at 86% is consistent with economic principles,indicating high credibility with regard to WTP;(2) social and economic characteristics of the data,such as age,income,wetland identification,and consumption,have good correspondence with WTP(for example,civil servants,teachers,lawyers,high-paying corporate workers,some high-income farmers,and soldiers have a higher WTP with a correlation of greater than 0.937);(3) calculated by CVM,the WTP of the average household for the World Bank project is 19.19 yuan per month;the survey results show that the local population is willing to pay to restore ecological functions of the wetlands,and differences in the WTP amount are mainly due to occupation and regional income;(4) the CVM method is useful for estimating the ecological function of wetlands restoration projects.Ability to pay is an important constraint on WTP,and is assumed greater than the respondents WTP.The study found that those with secondary-income are willing to pay the maximum amount,while some of the high-income groups with full capacity to pay had a low WTP,reflecting the level of environmental awareness and education.It is proved that WTP capacity is not only a positive correlation between the rather complex relevance.The order of the regions according to WTP,from high to low,are: the high-tech zone,Hong Town,Qinbo tomb area.The total public WTP amounts to 2.67 billion yuan,which exceeds the principal plus interest of the ten-year World Bank loan,suggesting that the project has good ecological benefits and economic efficiency.