Resource information
As the use of payments for environmental
services (PES) programs for conservation has grown in
developing countries, the use of stated preference methods,
particularly contingent valuation (CV) surveys, to estimate
the maximum amount that users of environmental services
(buyers) would be willing to pay has also increased. This
paper reviews 25 CV studies conducted in the context of PES
programs (CV-PES) and assesses their quality and usefulness
for designing PES programs. Almost all these studies attempt
to estimate the demand of downstream water users for
up-stream watershed protection and, more generally, for
improved water services. Most studies were methodologically
uninspired and generally low-quality applications of stated
preference methods, with limited policy relevance. The
quality and usefulness of CV-PES studies could be
substantially improved at only a modest increase in costs.
