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Voluntary Contributions to Hiking Trail Maintenance: Evidence From a Field Experiment in a National Park, Japan

Kubo, Takahiro, Shoji, Yasushi, Tsuge, Takahiro, Kuriyama, Koichi (2018) Voluntary Contributions to Hiking Trail Maintenance: Evidence From a Field Experiment in a National Park, Japan. Ecological Economics, 144 . pp. 124-128. ISSN 0921-8009. (doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.07.032) (KAR id:80495)

Abstract

Donation is one of the most important solutions to inadequate funding for protected area management; however, there has been little agreement on the measures to be used to encourage visitors to donate. We conducted a field experiment in Daisetsuzan National Park, Japan, to examine the effect on donation behavior of providing information about two types of initial contributions. The first type of contribution is toward the fundraising campaign for trail maintenance and the initial amount of government funding (i.e., seed money) and information is provided about the target amount. The second type is for trail maintenance and information is provided on the value of one day's contribution by other participants. We found that announcing the seed money amount and the target significantly increased the probability of a positive contribution and raised the average contribution, compared with the control treatment of no additional announcements. When the participants knew others' contribution beforehand, the likelihood of a positive contribution increased; however, the average contribution tended to decrease. In conclusion, announcing the seed money and the fundraising target is superior to the other measures studied in this paper to raise funds in this specific context of protected area management.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.07.032
Additional information: Unmapped bibliographic data: DA - 2018/02/01/ [EPrints field already has value set] JO - Ecological Economics [Field not mapped to EPrints]
Uncontrolled keywords: Donation, Field experiment, Information provision, National park, Park management, Voluntary contribution
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > DICE (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology)
Depositing User: Takahiro Kubo
Date Deposited: 01 Apr 2020 15:26 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 15:12 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/80495 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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