Using choice experiments to understand household tradeoffs regarding pineapple production and environmental management in Costa Rica Robert B. Richardson a, * , Delanie Kellon a , Ramon G. Leon b , Joseph Arvai c, d, e a Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1222, USA b University of Florida, West Florida Research and Education Center, Jay, FL 32565, USA c Department of Geography, The University of Calgary, Calgary AB T2N 1N4, Canada d Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy, The University of Calgary, Calgary AB T2N 1N4, Canada e Decision Research,1201 Oak Street, Eugene, OR 97401-3515, USA article info Article history: Received 3 April 2012 Received in revised form 5 April 2013 Accepted 23 May 2013 Available online 24 June 2013 Keywords: Choice experiments Tradeoffs Pineapple production Environmental management Costa Rica abstract Choices among environmental management alternatives involve tradeoffs where, for example, the benefits of environmental protection may be offset by economic costs or welfare losses to individual agents. Understanding individual or household-level preferences regarding these tradeoffs is not always straightforward, and it often requires an analysis of choices under alternative scenarios. A household survey was used to gather data for a choice experiment, where respondents were asked to choose among pairs of alternative management scenarios about pineapple production in Costa Rica. The experimental design consisted of six attributes that varied on between two and five attribute levels, and the experi- ment and accompanying survey were administered orally in Spanish. The results show that respondents are willing to make tradeoffs with respect to the management attributes in order to see an overall improvement in environmental quality. Respondents were willing to accept a moderate level of pesticide application, presumably in exchange for paying a lower cost or seeing a gain in another area, such as monitoring or soil conservation. Buffer zones were significant only in the case of large farms. The results have implications for policy decisions that aim to reflect public attitudes, particularly the aspects of pineapple production that matter most to people living near pineapple plantations. The study also highlights the effectiveness of the choice experiment approach in examining household preferences about environmental management in a rural development context. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Decisions among environmental management alternatives involve the need to confront tradeoffs where, for example, the benefits of environmental protection may be offset by economic costs or welfare losses to individual agents. Understanding indi- vidual or household-level preferences regarding these tradeoffs is not always straightforward, and it often requires an analysis of choices under alternative scenarios. Data depicting previous choices or behaviors may shed light on revealed preferences among various attributes, but frequently, household surveys are required in order to elicit stated preferences. Here, we used a household survey to gather data for a choice experiment (CE), where re- spondents were asked to choose among pairs of realistic alternative management scenarios for pineapple production in Costa Rica. Intensification of pineapple production has met with some resis- tance among members of neighboring communities because of certain land use practices such as application of agrochemicals (Barquero, 2011; Cantero, 2009; Chacón, 2012). Information about tradeoffs will help inform policy decisions by identifying aspects of pineapple production that are most significant to household atti- tudes about environmental management. Costa Rica is a middle-income developing country located in Central America bordered by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. The country is regarded for its dedication to natural resource conservation, which has resulted in the establishment of numerous environmental laws and 160 continental protected areas comprising 27 percent of Costa Rica’s total land area (Thrupp, 1990). * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 517 355 9533; fax: þ1 517 353 8994. E-mail addresses: rbr@msu.edu (R.B. Richardson), laniekellon@gmail.com (D. Kellon), rglg@ufl.edu (R.G. Leon), arvai@ucalgary.ca (J. Arvai). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman 0301-4797/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.05.043 Journal of Environmental Management 127 (2013) 308e316