Chileans' willingness to pay for protected areas

Abstract

Chile is one of the ten most underfunded countries for conservation of protected areas in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated protected areas' funding situation by severely reducing tourism revenues. This paper studies whether Chilean households would be willing to support protected areas through donations or tariffs. Using a contingent valuation approach, we find that the average willingness to pay ranges from US$ 3 to US$ 8 per household per month, depending on specification. Estimated willingness to pay is 23% to 36% lower when households are asked to pay via tariffs instead of donations. We discuss our results relative to previous literature and evaluate its policy implications in the Chilean context. We find that a flat tariff sufficient for covering 70% of the current funding gap would be acceptable to 74% of Chile's households.