Social preferences for fuel break management programs in Spain: a choice modelling application to prevention of forest fires
Elsa Varela A B G , Marek Giergiczny C , Pere Riera D , Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu E and Mario Soliño A F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, University of Valladolid & INIA, Avenida de Madrid 57, E-34004 Palencia, Spain.
B Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia, Carretera De Sant Llorenç de Morunys, Km.2, E-25280 Solsona, Spain.
C Department of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, P-00241 Warsaw, Poland.
D Autonomous University of Barcelona, Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambientals, E-08193 Bellatera, Spain.
E LEMNA, University of Nantes, F-44322 Nantes cedex, France.
F National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Forest Research Centre (CIFOR), Carretera de la Coruña, km. 7.5, E-28040 Madrid, Spain.
G Corresponding author. Email: elsa.varela.r@gmail.com
International Journal of Wildland Fire 23(2) 281-289 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF12106
Submitted: 5 July 2012 Accepted: 19 May 2013 Published: 27 November 2013
Abstract
This article reports on an economic valuation study of alternative fire prevention programs in the province of Málaga, southern Spain. The main aim of this study was to explore the social preferences for several forest fire prevention management issues. Fuel break programs were presented that differed in terms of cleaning technique (controlled grazing, prescribed burning and mechanical treatments), design (from traditional linear unshaded fire breaks to more landscape and environmentally friendly structures, such as shaded fuel breaks) and density (linked to annual burnt area). Results show that the population was clearly interested in the potential of the proposed programs to reduce fire. Lessons learnt from this study could be relevant for the development of fire prevention policies and specific prevention campaigns in Mediterranean forests.
Additional keywords: contingent ranking, random parameters, wildfires, willingness-to-pay.
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