Challenges in using valuation in ecosystem-based management in a marine context: the case of UK Marine Protected Area designation - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 255

A highly influential example of its use is in the Exxon Valdez disaster, one of the first
applications to estimate non-use values (Liu et al ., 2010 ) as an input to litigation (Carson et
al ., 2003 ) .TheNational Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA)formedapanel
chaired by Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow to comment and provide guidance on the valu-
ation methodologies applied. Recommendations included conducting survey pre-tests, sur-
vey design so as to minimize non-responses, and a preference for face-to-face interviews
(Arrow et al ., 1993 ) .
Amore recent methodological development inthe environmental economics literature
has been the use of choice experiments (Hanley et al ., 2001 ). Choice experiments (CEs)
originate from market research applications (Bateman, 2002 ), but have been adopted in
non-market valuation of ecosystems since the mid 1990s. They are based on the premise
that a commodity is a composite of a series of perceived attributes (Hussain, 2000 ) . For
ecosystem-focused CEs, the 'commodity' in question might be different renewable energy
production (Odam, 2011 ) with options as follows: (1) marine seascape visually dominated
by offshore wind farms; (2) wave turbines; (3) onshore wind. These are compared with the
status quo (i.e. BAU) option of 'no new renewable energy installations'. The 'attributes'
withintheseoptionsincludedifferinglevelsofwildlifeimpactanddifferentlocations.Each
non-BAU option has an associated cost. There is no additional cost to the BAU option, but
the presumption of new fossil fuel based energy generation with higher air pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions. In CE surveys, respondents are presented with different choice
cards with differing attribute levels (at differing costs). Individuals must choose one op-
tion. Since a financial cost is included, a value for individual attributes can be estimated.
The CE approach has recently been applied to estimate the loss in recreational benefits as-
sociated with algal bloom in the Black Sea (Taylor and Longo, 2010 ) , fisheries manage-
ment policies (Groeneveld, 2011 ) , and changes in marine biodiversity (Ressurreição et al .,
2012 ) . The contingent valuation method (CVM) used in the Exxon Valdez case (and subse-
quently) does not allow value estimates for individual attributes in the same manner; there
is an overall pairwise comparison between two scenarios, each of which has certain attrib-
ute levels embedded within them. Both CE and CVM are valid approaches to valuation,