| Application Dept. |
International Master Program Agriculture (IMPA) |
| Principal Investigator |
Prof. Chifumi Takagi |
| Project Title |
Cultural Ecosystem Services of Agriculture in Nantou County in Taiwan |
| Co-Principal Investigator |
1. A.P. Kuo-Jung Chao, IMPA 2. A.P. Wen-Ching Chen, International Bachelor Program of Agribusiness (IBPA) 3. Man-Keun Kim, Dept. of Applied Economics, Utah State University |
| Co-Investigator |
|
| Abstract |
Enhancing sustainable Ecosystem Services (ES) such as provisioning (food), supporting, regulating and cultural services, is important because balancing the need to provide enough food for a growing population while maintaining ES is arguably one of the most pressing issues. It is typically important for Taiwan as agricultural land under substantial and increasing urban development pressures which are threats to the preservation of agriculture and ES. Implementing ES conservation strategies on farms is a key to identify possible solutions. One approach for accomplishing this is that consumers pay the price to farmers for ES provided by farmers. This study focuses on cultural ES as it has been overlooked and therefore tries to estimate willingness to pay to cultural ES using consumers’ survey. In addition, this study estimates willingness to accept by farmers for ecological compensation to maintain cultural ES using farmers’ survey in Nantou County, Taiwan. Expected results are: 1) Values of cultural ES and factors affecting these values such as socio-economic variables, 2) additional cost to improve sustainability of farmland/cropland or to maintain organic farming, and 3) potential government policies sustain farmland/cropland. |
