This project will undertake a review of the literature related to economic incentives, regulatory framework and policies concerned with the development of the non-market benefits associated with marine coastal resources. The project will draw upon studies of settlement, tourism and rural development that have been prepared over recent years by the universities and such bodies as the Marine Institute, Environmental Protection Agency, Teagasc, Department of Agriculture and Food, the Council for the West, and the Western Development Commission.  It will consider what policies are likely to be enacted in response to increasing demand for the non-market benefits form coastal and marine eco-system services. 

A workshop will also be organized during November 2011.  We will involve practitioners in the field of non-market valuation to advise on design and methodological issues in contingent valuation and travel cost valuation on willingness-to-pay (WTP) elements of the project. In the design phase of the WTP questionnaire a number of the key stakeholders as identified in the workshop will be consulted to ensure that all relevant issues are tested in the WTP questionnaires. These stakeholders will also advise on the public CVM survey and appropriate case study sites for the study.

The European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (adopted in June 2008) aims to protect more effectively the marine environment across Europe. It main aims are to achieve good environmental status of the EU's marine waters by 2021 and to protect the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive constitutes the environmental component of the Union's future maritime policy and is designed to achieve the full economic potential of oceans and seas in harmony with the marine environment.

The marine strategies to be developed under the directive by each Member State must contain a detailed assessment of the state of the environment, a definition of "good environmental status" at regional level and the establishment of clear environmental targets and monitoring programmes. To this end it would be interesting to conduct a study aimed at placing a value on the achievement of good environmental status in Irelands marine waters.

The main objectives of the study would be:

(i) To determine what value the general public place on improvements in marine environmental indicators, and thus on the non-market economic benefits of moves towards good environmental status for particular marine areas.

(ii) To determine willingness to pay (WTP) (according to user socioeconomic profiles at selected sites) for benefits of improved water quality of Irish marine waters using Contingent Valuation Methodology.

(iii)  To determine public preferences for specific marine environmental attributes according to user socioeconomic profiles, using choice modelling techniques.

How exactly regulators will interpret "good environmental status" under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive is an issue that is currently being debated. It is clear that it represents a wider set of parameters than the chemical and biological measures of water quality that have previously dominated EU water quality regulations at the EU level. We would hope to use indicators of environmental status, which ordinary people see as important, but which are also consistent with regulator's expectations about the scientific interpretation of this concept. For example we could take environmental status to be determined by factors such as healthy wildlife and fish populations; absence of litter/debris in the sea and on the sea shore; no visual signs of poor water quality, etc. The main focus in this project is therefore on the values people place on improvements in the environmental indicators, and thus on the non-market economic benefits of moves towards good environmental status as defined in the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

People involved:

Stephen Hynes

Thomas Van Rensburg