Economic valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in
the Codru forest and the Codru Nature Reserve in the Republic of Moldova
The Codru Quest is a scientific research initiative of the organisation MEGA, which emerged from the MEGA Impact Championship.
It is now a stand-alone study on the economic valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the protected area of the Codru Nature Reserve and the Codru forest in the Republic of Moldova.
Degradation of the Codru forest and other forest ecosystems in the Republic of Moldova and their biodiversity. One of the causes of this problem targeted by the project is lack of awareness about indirect use and non-use values of forest ecosystems for society and their undervaluation in cost-benefit analysis, land use planning, and environmental policy making.
Significant effort and costs required from a researcher to conduct economic valuation studies on ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation and obtaining the necessary participation and response rates from the targeted population sample. The burden of this problem is the greatest for researchers, who are at the beginning of their economic valuation experience.
Estimate and present the indirect use and non-use economic values of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru forest and the Codru Nature Reserve in the Republic of Moldova.
Elaborate and publish a methodological guidebook that describes the step-by-step process of conducting an economic valuation study with choice modelling technique, where each step is illustrated by examples from the Codru Quest.
The Codru Quest represents the first economic valuation research on ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation with the use of the choice modelling technique conducted in the Republic of Moldova.
The project used the concept of gamification in the surveying process. Its aim was to increase the participation and response rate of the survey and obtain as much valuable data from each respondent as possible.
The result of the Codru Quest is the people’s willingness-to-pay for certain ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru forest, which can be used as economic input for further environmental studies.
The Codru Quest project relies upon the existing scientific methodology of conducting economic valuation studies in developed countries and brings it to a developing country of Moldova.
To estimate economic values of such non-market good as the ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation the project uses the stated preference (SP) method. Among the family of SP methods, the Codru Quest focuses specifically on the choice modelling (CM) technique in order to elicit values of changes in characteristics of the ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru forest.
The Codru Quest research process is divided into 3 key phases:
Phase I was about making first expeditions to the Codru forest, calculating the target population sample to approach with the Codru Quest survey, deciding on the exact surveying methods to be used, designing and testing the CM survey, analyzing feedback and preliminary data from the first 100 respondents, and drawing preliminary conclusions.
Phase II included such activities, as improving the CM survey on the basis of feedback received and lessons learnt from preliminary data analysis, determining the full population sample, releasing the improved CM survey to the sampe of 200 respondents, collecting and analyzing data from it, and coming up with immediate conclusions regarding willingness-to-pay estimates.
Phase III contributed to the Codru Quest research process with testing the final results on validity, aggregating them to the target population of 3500 annual visitors to the Codru Nature Reserve, elaborating final conclusions on the entire research work and its results, preparing the Final Report of the project, and presenting it to the main stakeholders.
More information about the methodology applied in the Codru Quest is available in the methodological guidebook “The Codru Quest: Methodology”. Use it to design and conduct your own economic valuation study of environmental goods and services.
The surveying process of the Codru Quest project targeted the population sample of 201 respondents from the capital city Chisinau and 9 villages located in close proximity to the Codru Nature Reserve and the Codru forest.
The process included two “traditional” methods of conducting choice modelling survey and an additional innovative approach of applying gamification to collect the necessary willingness-to-pay data from the targeted respondents:
This method used the CM survey design made publicly available in the internet. The link to the survey was sent by e-mail and Messenger to randomly selected respondents from the city Chisinau, who have access to computer and internet.
CAPI was conducted on the basis of the same survey design, but it was done by a hired marketing research company and its interviewers. Only residents of the 9 target villages, who usually do not have access to internet, were surveyed through this method.
This was done as an experiment of using gamification for increasing participation and response rate of the CM survey and obtaining as much valuable data from each respondent as possible. The experiment was done with a sample of 100 respondents via MEGA Game.
The final results of the project, consisting of respondents’ preferences in nature conservation, estimates of their willingness-to-pay for it, and economic values of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru Nature Reserve and the Codru forest, are displayed in the presentation below.
More information about the Codru Quest project, detailed explanation of its final results, and concrete recommendations for the main stakeholders can be found in the publication “The Codru Quest: Final Report”. You can read, download, and use it for cost-benefit analysis, land use planning, environmental policy making, and further research on economic valuation of ecosystem services.
The Codru Quest: Your Choice – Final printed version of the survey.
The Codru Quest: Datasets – Datasets from Phases I and II with city and village residents.
The Codru Quest: Final Dataset – Dataset with final WTP data from Phase II.
The Codru Quest: Socio-economic Data – Dataset with Phase II socio-economic data.
The Codru Quest: Codru.RData – Data from Phase I processed in the R software.
The Codru Quest: Codru2.RData – Data from Phase II processed in the R software.
The Codru Quest: Phase I Results – Summary of preliminary WTP data from pilot survey.
The Codru Quest: Methodology – Guidebook to economic valuation with the CM method.
The Codru Quest: Final Report – Final report on the Codru Quest project with its results.
The Codru Quest: Public Policy Proposal – Proposal on the basis of the Codru Quest.
Bennett, J. et al. (2004). Estimating society’s willingness to pay to maintain viable rural communities. The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 48:3.
Bräuer, I. (2003). Money as an indicator: to make use of economic evaluation for biodiversity conservation. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 98(1-3).
Fausto, F. and de Kruiff, T. (2017). Conducting Stated Preference Surveys in Developing Countries: The Choice of an Appropriate Payment Vehicle. University of Copenhagen.
Hanley, N. et al. (2001). Choice Modelling Approaches: A Superior Alternative for Environmental Valuation? Journal of Economic Surveys, Vol 15, No. 3.
Iscenco, A. and Li, J. (2014). The Game with Impact: Gamification in Environmental Education and Entrepreneurship. World Resources Forum 2014.
Popa, B. et al. (2014). Forest dependence based on surveys conducted in three villages of Moldova. FLEG II (ENPI East), October 2014.
Alexandr Iscenco
Research Coordinator
Elena Ungureanu
Team Coordinator
Evdokia Roidou
Research Assistant
Felipe Fausto
Research Assistant
