Resident Motivations and Willingness-to-Pay for Urban Biodiversity Conservation in Guangzhou (China) Wendy Y. Chen • C. Y. Jim Received: 1 June 2009 / Accepted: 13 March 2010 / Published online: 31 March 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract The monetary assessment of biodiversity mea- sures the welfare damages brought by biodiversity losses and the cost-benefit analysis of conservation projects in a socio-economic context. The contingent valuation method could include motivational factors to strengthen economic analysis of nature conservation. This study analyzed Gu- angzhou residents’ motivations and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an urban biodiversity conservation program in the National Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area (BMSA). The peri-urban natural site, offering refuge to some endemic species, is under increasing development pressures for recreational and residential use. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the Guangzhou metropolitan area during June to October 2007. We interviewed face-to-face 720 stratified sampled households to probe residents’ attitudes towards the city’s environmental issues, motivations for urban nature conservation, and WTP for biodiversity con- servation. Principal component analysis identified five motivational factors, including environmental benefit, ecological diversity, nature-culture interaction, landscape- recreation function, and intergenerational sustainability, which illustrated the general economic values of urban nature. Logistic regression was applied to predict the probability of people being willing to pay for the urban biodiversity conservation in BMSA. The significant pre- dictors of WTP included household income and the factor nature-culture interaction. The median WTP estimated RMB149/household (about US$19.5/household) per year and an aggregate of RMB291 million (approximately US$38.2 million) annually to support the urban conserva- tion project. Including public motivations into contingent valuation presents a promising approach to conduct cost- benefit analysis of public projects in China. Keywords Biodiversity conservation  Conservation motivation  Contingent valuation  Urban natural area  Urban nature conservation  China Introduction Over half of the earth’s population now lives in urban areas (Martine 2007). Urban population growth in developing countries is particularly fast, attaining 3.82% per annum in Southeast Asia (UN-HABITAT 2006). In China, the urban population is anticipated to exceed one billion in 2050, mainly due to the massive tide of rural–urban migration of 12 million persons per year (Chen 2000). As cities grow larger and denser, nature in cities is degraded due to habitat destruction and degradation (Turner and others 2004; Faul 2008). Fortunately, the importance of urban habitats to nature conservation has been increasingly recognized, in tandem with the associated educational, recreational, cul- tural, health, and spiritual benefits (Wolf 2005; Davison and Ridder 2006). Conserving biological diversity in places where people live and work presents a key environmental challenge to municipal policy makers (Murphy 1988). Local residents’ attitudes and understanding of pertinent issues, serving as underlying motivations, are crucial for urban biodiversity conservation (Walpole and Goodwin 2001). Successful nature conservation strategies tend to be people-driven and socially embedded (Rudzitis and Jo- hansen 1991; Evans 2004). Involving local people is W. Y. Chen  C. Y. Jim (&) Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China e-mail: hragjcy@hkucc.hku.hk URL: geog.hku.hk/staff/jim.htm 123 Environmental Management (2010) 45:1052–1064 DOI 10.1007/s00267-010-9478-2