Estimating the willingness to pay and the intertemporal discount rate for the protection of the biodiversity in the marine reserve, Choros-Damas

In this paper we used a net present value model to jointly estimate the willingness to pay (WTP), and the intertemporal discount rate, for a biodiversity environmental conservation program whose payments are allocated along a time horizon. We applied a contingent valuation survey to capture the economic value associated with the protection of a marine ecosystem in the marine reserve, Choros-Damas in Chile. Respondents faced a scenario with a WTP question with periods of 1, 5, and 10 years. The esti-mated discount rate is larger than the interest rates found in market transactions but significantly lower than rates found in similar environmental projects.