https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2025.101763

River deltas around the world have experienced ecological decline due to upstream development and human activities. However, assessing the monetized benefits of ecosystem restoration is challenging due to the less tangible nature of many values that people hold for these natural areas. This paper quantifies the non-use values for river delta ecological conservation using a stated preference survey. The empirical application is the Saskatchewan River Delta in Canada where we develop and administer a national survey to elicit people’s preferences for restoration scenarios with changing fish and wildlife population levels and changes in the extent of habitat in good ecological condition. We find that Canadians are willing to pay for river delta restoration improvements, and preferences for restoration options are heterogeneous across the population. Models with nonlinear attribute levels fit the choice data better than linear attribute specifications suggesting the presence of diminishing marginal willingness to pay as ecological improvements increase. The annual monetized benefits for Saskatchewan River Delta future scenarios are estimated to be $79 to $223 per household depending on the level of restoration efforts. This study contributes to the empirical evidence that the benefits of nature accrue to people that live far away from natural areas.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2025.101763