| dc.description | Mega-biodiverse but poor countries, like Bolivia, have the challenge to find a way of
development that allows the conservation of their particular nature heritage.
Commercialization of protected biodiversity (a component of Biotrade initiatives) may
open new income sources, but there is little information about potential markets and the
attitude of the potential consumers towards this possibility. Thus, this study analyzes the
German citizens´ attitudes towards a possible trade of protected ornamental plants. State
preferences techniques: contingent valuation and choice experiment methods were used
for the evaluation and the results were interpreted from the perspective of the neoclassical
demand theory and the theory of random utility (consumer behavior model). 206
inhabitants from Göttingen, Germany, older than 16 years were interviewed. The results
reveal that Göttingen’s inhabitants express a positive response to the offer of ornamental
plants. They show a high willingness to buy and even to pay more for ornamental
protected plants from Bolivia. This behavior is mainly influenced by factors such as the
type of management, origin of plants, price, knowledge about protection in plants, relation
with nature issues, type of plants, educational level and income per month. These results
would suggest a positive scenario to promote protected plant trade. However, under the
conditions of a real market, the “protection status” -as an attribute- of the offered
ornamental plants would be less decisive for purchasing plants according to a choice
experiment method. This has shown that among other alternatives, price and
management are also determinant factors. Hence, to evaluate the potential of
commercialization, protected plants must also be analyzed according to standard
marketing characteristics looking at attributes such as color of flowers and leaves, size of
plants, etc. The results of this pioneer study instigate more investigation about Biotrade
and specific and detailed market analysis for protected plants. | |
