Economic valuation of conservation of genetic resources of wild rice relatives : Assessing the preferences of adjacent community for conserving Oryza granulata in the Wavulpane area

Abstract

This study was aimed to achieve the specific objective of assessing the preferences of adjacent communities for utilization, benefit sharing and conservation of the genetic resources of Wild Rice Relatives (WRR) in Sri Lanka and to explore the capability of setting the priorities for conservation and management of WRR based on these preferences. The “Wavulpane” village located in the Rathnapura district was selected as the case as: (a) it was reported to be one of the growing areas for the WRR of Oriza granulata, and (b) there were no weedy rice problems prevailing in this village. The “Choice Experiment Models” (CEM) [i.e. stated preference method used to obtain Option Values for non-market goods by exploring the individuals’ stated behavior in a hypothetical setting] were applied. The data were collected from 50 individuals who were well aware of the presence and potential importance of this particular WRR through a Participatory Community Appraisal (PCA) carried out with the support of a structured questionnaire designed specifically for the CEM. Outcome of the Choice Experiment, which used a Fractional Factorial Design to array four attributes and three levels in the choice sets orthogonally, shows that an individual in an adjacent community was Willing-To-Pay nearly Rs. 82 per year for in-situ conservation of WRR. The need of the hour is, therefore, to develop appropriate policy and institutional framework that works for this task to which both short and long term policies as well as stakeholder participation should be guaranteed (i.e. research stations, universities, NGOs)