At a Conservation Crossroad: The Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve in the Dominican Republic

Víctor Gómez-Valenzuela (), Francisco Alpízar, Katerin Ramirez, Solhanlle Bonilla-Duarte and Harro van Lente
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Francisco Alpízar: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, 6700EW Wageningen, The Netherlands
Katerin Ramirez: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Santo Domingo 10602, Dominican Republic
Solhanlle Bonilla-Duarte: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Santo Domingo 10602, Dominican Republic
Harro van Lente: Science and Technology Studies, University of Maastricht, 6211SZ Maastricht, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: This paper assesses the Dominican Republic’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a conservation, restoration, and sustainable development program for the Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve (RBJBE). Created in 2002, the RBJBE covers approximately 4858 km 2 , of which approximately 900 km 2 correspond to the sea surface. With three core conservation zones, the RBJBE constitutes a complex space with a history of conflicts rooted in exploiting natural resources and social and economic issues. At the same time, it is a biodiversity hotspot of global importance. We present a Contingent Valuation Method to estimate the WTP for a conservation and restoration program called PROBIOSFERA. The non-parametric and parametric estimates of the WTP are DOP 165.00 ( ? USD 2.94) and DOP 181.88 ( ? USD 3.25), respectively. The socioeconomic variables that positively affect the WTP are income level, educational level, and age. The ecosystem services that are statistically related to WTP are the provisioning and supporting services. Regardless of the monetary valuation scenarios defined, the estimated annual monetized aggregated welfare associated with the RBJBE for Dominican society is DOP 7.2 billion ( ? USD 128.1 million).

Keywords: biosphere reserve; Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo; contingent valuation; Dominican Republic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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