Incorporating expert knowledge in farmers’ opportunity cost of supplying environmental services in rural Cameroon
Published 2023-09-04
Keywords
- Bayesian analysis, Environmental services, Stated preferences, Opportunity cost, Rural Cameroon
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2023 Claudiane Yanick Moukam, Calvin Atewamba
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This paper uses a Bayesian approach to incorporate non-data information in the estimate of the
opportunity cost of farmers to conserve biodiversity and facilitate carbon sequestration in rural
Cameroon. Our field survey reveals that few farmers are willing to participate in environmental
protection programs without compensation. As shown by a multidimensional preferences analysis,
this behavior may come from the disconnection between environmental values and socioeconomic
values. A Bayesian analysis of the Tobit model of the Willingness To Accept compensation (WTA)
to participate in agroforestry programs underlines that aging, higher educational attainment, and
higher socioeconomic status are very likely to promote pro environmental behaviors. The resulting
opportunity cost of supplying environmental services is estimated at 10,775 Fcfa with a standard deviation of 333,6 Fcfa per farmer. These results are qualitatively different from the related literature.
They emphasizes the relative importance of accounting for expert knowledge in the interpretation
of environmental policies.