People, protected areas and ecosystem services: a qualitative and quantitative analysis of local people’s perception and preferences in Côte d’Ivoire Ariane Amin, Julie G. Zaehringer, Gudrun Schwilch and Inza Koné Abstract The long-term integrity of protected areas (PAs), and hence the maintenance of related ecosystem services (ES), are dependent on the support of local people. In the present study, local people’s perceptions of ecosystem services from PAs and factors that govern local preferences for PAs are assessed. Fourteen study villages were randomly selected from three different protected forest areas and one control site along the southern coast of Côte d’Ivoire. Data was collected through a mixed-method approach, including qualitative semi-structured interviews and a household survey based on hypothetical choice scenarios. Local people’s perceptions of ecosystem service provision was decrypted through qualitative content analysis, while the relation between people’s preferences and potential factors that affect preferences were analyzed through multinomial models. This study shows that rural villagers do perceive a number of different ecosystem services as benefits from PAs in Côte d’Ivoire. The results based on quantitative data also suggest that local preferences for PAs and related ecosystem services are driven by PAs’ management rules, age, and people’s dependence on natural resources. Keywords: Biodiversity; conservation; ecosystem services; perceptions; preferences; choice models; West Africa. 1. Introduction The world’s most biodiverse forest ecosystems are found in developing countries of the southern hemisphere, where they are surrounded by poor, rural farming populations (Fisher and Christopher, 2007; Naughton-Treves et al., 2005). To date, the main instrument in securing this exceptional biodiversity remains the designation of protected areas (PAs) (Deke, 2008; Dudley, 2008), whose impact on local people is still poorly understood. Although it has been shown that areas rich in biodiversity have a high potential to generate benefits for local people (Turner et al., 2012), to reconcile conservation goals with local needs has always been a challenge (Tallis et al., 2008). The demand to protect tropical forests and ecosystem services through PAs, is often generated at the global level, as are some of the benefits of the resulting conservation efforts (e.g. carbon sequestration). Furthermore, global decisions affecting the local provision of ecosystem services from PAs are made using an approach that is overly standardized and oblivious to local realities (Kaul et al., 2003). In some cases, however, local populations do perceive PAs as beneficial for ecosystem service provision (Abbot et al., 2001; Allendorf and Yang, 2013; Hartter and Goldman, 2011; Sodhi et al., 2010). At the same time, they feel the burden of PA establishment, mainly through reduced access to provisioning ecosystem services (Guerbois et al., 2012; Robertson and Lawes, 2005), displacement, and the curtailment of property rights (Brockington and Schmidt-Soltau, 2004; Colchester, 2004; Ghimire et al., 1997; Muhumuza and Balkwill, 2013). Many studies have reported that the long-term integrity of African PAs, which often coincide with immense pressure exerted by human population (Balmford et al., 2001), depends on the support of local people (Ferraro, 2002; Kremen et al., 1999; Vodouhê et al., 2010). A meta- study on African protected forest areas found that a positive attitude towards the PA by the surrounding communities was the strongest correlate of PA success (Struhsaker et al., 2005). In any developing country context, key questions are what it really means for local people to live near a land devoted to conservation, and which key factors determine Ariane Amin is an Environmental Economist at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche sur le Développement International (CERDI), Université d’Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France, and at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte-d’Ivoire (CSRS). E-mail: ariane_ manuela.amin@etu.udamail.fr Julie G. Zaehringer is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) and the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland Gudrun Schwilch is Head of Natural Resources Cluster at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland Inza Koné is a Senior Researcher at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte-d’Ivoire (CSRS), Université Félix Houphouët Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire Natural Resources Forum 39 (2015) 97–109 DOI: 10.1111/1477-8947.12069 © 2015 The Authors. Natural Resources Forum © 2015 United Nations