Survey of north Australian graziers and pastoralists with choice experiment regarding participation in contractual biodiversity conservation

The contributions of farmers (pastoralists and graziers) is required to safeguard the iconic biodiversity of Australia's tropical savannas into the future because the conservation estate is insufficiently large or connected to achieve regional-scale conservation objectives. The primary land use of tropical savannas is extensive beef cattle grazing, which is defined as the north Australian pastoral industry. The purpose of this research is to establish the willingness of pastoralists and graziers to participate in contractual biodiversity conservation and estimate potential area supply for different conservation options. The research explores preferences for contract attributes and heterogeneity of preferences, and other influences on willingness to participate including business, social and psychological factors such as motivations, attitudes and risk perceptions. To that effect, a survey of pastoralists and graziers (n=104, area covered >250,000km2) was conducted, which contained a choice experiment. Methods of analysis included statistical analysis (descriptive, correlation & factor analysis, post-hoc comparisons) and econometric analysis (choice modelling: multinomial logit, random parameter logit, latent class).

为保障澳大利亚热带稀树草原（tropical savannas）标志性生物多样性的长期存续，牧民与牧场主（pastoralists and graziers）的参与不可或缺——现有保护地体系（conservation estate）的面积规模与连通性均不足以达成区域尺度的保护目标。热带稀树草原的核心土地利用方式为大规模肉牛放牧，该业态即澳大利亚北部牧场产业。本研究旨在明确牧民与牧场主参与契约式生物多样性保护（contractual biodiversity conservation）的意愿，并估算不同保护方案下的潜在可供给保护面积。研究同时探讨了研究对象对契约条款的偏好及其偏好异质性，以及影响其参与意愿的多维度因素，涵盖经营、社会与心理层面，如参与动机、态度与风险感知等。为此，研究团队针对牧民与牧场主开展了问卷调查（有效样本量n=104，覆盖面积超25万平方千米），问卷内嵌选择实验（choice experiment）环节。本研究采用的分析方法包括统计分析与计量经济学分析两类：统计分析涵盖描述性统计、相关性分析、因子分析及事后比较；计量经济学分析则包含多项Logit模型（multinomial logit）、随机参数Logit模型（random parameter logit）与潜在类别模型（latent class）等选择建模方法。