What is a lion worth to local people – Quantifying of the costs of living alongside a top predator

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dc.contributor.authorJacobsen, Kim S.
dc.contributor.authorSandorf, Erlend Dancke
dc.contributor.authorLoveridge, Andrew J.
dc.contributor.authorDickman, Amy J.
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Paul J.
dc.contributor.authorMourato, Susana
dc.contributor.authorContu, Davide
dc.contributor.authorMacdonald, David W.
dc.date.accessioned2022-12-21T09:37:48Z
dc.date.available2022-12-21T09:37:48Z
dc.date.copyright© 2022
dc.date.issued2022-08
dc.description.abstractThe presence of large predators entails a range of costs and some benefits for the communities that live alongside them. The cost in terms of the value of livestock lost to predation is well known, but this represents only a part of the costs that people experience, as it does not account for non-market costs such as fear, avoidance behaviours and threat to human life. We quantify the total cost of lion presence for agro-pastoral communities in Zimbabwe using economic valuation techniques. The total perceived value of one additional lion was estimated to be negative US$180 per person per year, which is several hundred times larger than the market value of the average loss of livestock per household. If making simplifying economic assumptions, this discrepancy reveals the magnitude of the non-market costs associated with the presence of large predators. The disvalue of lion presence was linked to fear, ecocentric values, wealth and trust in compensation institutions. We also demonstrate the importance of considering heterogeneity in preferences within communities; segments of the population did not have net negative value attached to lions, and some disliked monetary compensation. We also estimate the willingness-to-accept for two human-wildlife conflict mitigation programs in terms of acceptable increases in lion numbers, as opposed to monetary units which is the conventional approach in economic valuation studies. We argue that estimating value in terms of biodiversity outcomes should be used more widely. We also demonstrate the distorting effect of distrust towards compensation in choice experiments and argue that economic valuation methods employing choice experiments should control for this distrust when estimating willingness-to-pay. These discoveries have relevance for a wide range of situations where potentially dangerous wildlife species co-exist with people. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
dc.description.sponsorshipThe Humane Society of the United States, The Robertson Foundation and the Darwin Initiative [grant id: DAR3270].
dc.identifier.citationJacobsen, K. S., Sandorf, E. D., Loveridge, A. J., Dickman, A. J., Johnson, P. J., Mourato, S., . . . Macdonald, D. W. (2022). What is a lion worth to local people – quantifying of the costs of living alongside a top predator. Ecological Economics, 198 doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107431
dc.identifier.issn09218009
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107431
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12519/727
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherElsevier B.V.
dc.relationAuthors Affiliations : Jacobsen, K.S., Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, United Kingdom; Sandorf, E.D., Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business, P.O. Box 5003, Ås, NO-1432, Norway; Loveridge, A.J., Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, United Kingdom; Dickman, A.J., Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, United Kingdom; Johnson, P.J., Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, United Kingdom; Mourato, S., Department of Geography and the environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton St, Holborn, London, WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom; Contu, D., Faculty of Management, Canadian University Dubai, City Walk, Al Wasl, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Macdonald, D.W., Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, United Kingdom
dc.relation.ispartofseriesEcological Economics; Volume 198
dc.rightsLicense to reuse the abstract has been secured from Elsevier and Copyright Clearance Center.
dc.rights.holderCopyright : © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
dc.rights.urihttps://s100.copyright.com/MyAccount/viewLicenseDetails?ref=f9072f55-7a73-4a6a-b469-31626eb00e87
dc.subjectCarnivores
dc.subjectChoice modelling
dc.subjectCommunity conservation
dc.subjectEconomic valuation
dc.subjectHuman-wildlife co-existence
dc.subjectHuman-wildlife conflict
dc.subjectLion conservation
dc.titleWhat is a lion worth to local people – Quantifying of the costs of living alongside a top predator
dc.typeArticle

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