Farmers’ Behavior and Provision of Improved Ecosystem Services : A Choice Experiment of Ethiopian Farmers´ Adoption of Sustainable Management Strategies

This study explores Ethiopian farmers’ propensity to adopt sustainable management strategies to rehabilitate small rivers and streams in terms of practices that improve ecological conditions but also have positive impacts on the provisioning ecosystem services (ES) generated by their agricultural activities. In order to map their preferences for particular river ES and management strategies, we conducted a discrete choice experiment of different management strategies to improve the reliability of water supply, flood protection walls, riparian vegetation, and water quality in nearby rivers. Farmers have heterogeneous preferences, but significant and positive demand for the improvements of these ES. Households with larger farms and better access to irrigation are willing to pay more for water supply reliability. Households with farm plots nearby a river are willing to pay more for flood protection services, and households engaged in bee-keeping activities are willing to pay more for the regeneration of riparian vegetation. The results show that households are willing to pay more for ES attributes particularly associated with the provisioning services provided by their farming. These findings can be used to design pathways out of poverty and at the same time secure sustainable use of ES in developing countries