JournalofSustainableDevelopment; Vol.12,No.6; 2019 ISSN 1913-9063 E-ISSN 1913-9071 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 62 Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting US Residents’ Willingness to Pay to Restore Degraded Tropical Rainforest Watersheds Elizabeth A. Obeng 1 , Kwame A. Oduro 1 & Beatrice D. Obiri 1 1 CSIR–Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Kumasi, Ghana Correspondence: Elizabeth A. Obeng, CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, P. O. Box UP 63, Kumasi, Ghana. Tel: 233-3220-60121. E-mail: eobeng@csir-forig.org.gh Received: September 22, 2019 Accepted: November 14, 2019 Online Published: November 28, 2019 doi:10.5539/jsd.v12n6p62 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v12n6p62 Abstract This study assessed US residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) to restore degraded tropical rainforest watersheds using predictors from the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in an experimental approach. Responses from a random sample of over 1000 US respondents were analyzed using a logistic regression with willingness to pay as the intended behavior predicted by attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and complementary explanatory variables. Subjective norm was the strongest of all the variables and the strongest TPB predictor of WTP. Other statistically significant variables predicting WTP included direct experience with the resource and support for environmental groups. Age, gender and education also significantly predicted WTP. Overall, 22 percent of respondents were willing to make an annual monetary contribution ranging from US$ 30.00 to US$ 150.00 through increase in income tax for five years. The economic value for the restored tropical rainforest watershed was estimated at US$ 146.32 per household per year. Keywords: theory of planned behavior, willingness to pay, tropical rainforest watershed, ecological restoration, payment for ecosystem services 1. Introduction Tropical rainforests provide a multitude of ecosystem services that substantially contribute to human well-being (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Tropical rainforests offer fundamental ecological functions at multiple ecological scales ranging from impacts to global carbon cycles to local rainfall regimes (Houghton, 2012; Wunder, 2001).Tropical rainforests are a major reservoir of genetic diversity of plant and animals although covering only about 7% of the earth’s land surface (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2015; Jonathan, Onyekwelu, Reinhard, & Bernd, 2007). Despite their importance, tropical rainforests continue to be converted to other land uses. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (2015), per capita area of tropical forests has declined from 0.8 ha to 0.6 ha from 1990 to 2015. Payments for forest conservation, among the growing array of payments for ecosystem service (PES) schemes, aim to motivate a change in forest owner behavior by internalizing non-market benefits that forests provide through conditional financial compensation (Engel, 2008; Jack, 2008; Wunder, 2005, 2015; Obeng, Aguilar, & Mccann, 2018). As a financial mechanism, PES drive attitudinal change by rewarding forgone opportunity costs associated with ecosystem preservation (Moreno-Sanchez, Maldonado, Wunder, &Borda-Almanza, 2012; Obeng, Aguilar & McCann, 2018).PES mechanisms offer a direct link between beneficiaries of ecosystem services and providers of such services. Increasing awareness of the global consequences of local tropical forest deterioration has opened the door for new initiatives where local tropical conservation compensated by distant co-beneficiaries as illustrated by the establishment of the United Nations’ Initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (UN-REDD+) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects (Bond et al., 2009; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), 2007; McAfee, 2012). To-date application of payments for forest conservation programs have shown potential to reduce deforestation and prevent forest degradation, particularly the extirpation of timber-value species (e.g., Alix-Garcia, Shapiro & Sims, 2012; Mohebalian, & Aguilar, 2015, 2018; Robalino, & Pfaff, 2013).