Assessing public preferences for deep sea ecosystem conservation: a choice experiment in Norway and Scotland

Recent events around the world have revealed varying degrees of public
support for climate change and environmental regulation. Applying a
latent class logit model, this study investigates Norwegian and Scottish
public’s economic support for proposed deep sea management policies
for novel attributes, identifying the presence of preference
heterogeneity. Marine litter and health of fish stocks were the attributes
with the highest values in absolute terms. This was followed by the size
of the protected area coverage, whilst the creation of jobs was the least
valued. The results highlight public support for the further collective
action required by the EU in moving beyond the 2020 objective of
achieving good environmental status of Europe’s seas, despite the low
WTP values of the minority classes in each country.