Drivers of willingness to pay for reforestation of urban ecosystems in Ghana
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 2 June 2023
Issue publication date: 23 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Population growth and urbanization pose several threats to terrestrial ecosystems, especially in forest ecological zones worldwide. This study examines the drivers of average willingness to pay (WTP) to restore urban forests in a developing country.
Design/methodology/approach
It utilizes survey data of households and employs a robust Heckman two-step estimator with bootstrapping to address the research objective.
Findings
The study underscores the role of income, gender, education and perception of the health benefits of forests as the underlying determinants of restoration bids by respondents. These drivers have a positive and statistically significant effect on forest restoration. Education and gender appear to be the most effective by magnitude, followed by the perception of health benefits, then income. Attention is therefore drawn to relevant economic, sociocultural and psychological factors towards the goal of forestry to improve well-being in urban centres.
Originality/value
This paper seeks to add methodological insights to the literature on reforestation and land use changes in the Accra metropolitan area and the local population’s WTP for reforestation in this area. In principle, this is a case study informing about the values people hold for forests in Ghana and Africa, where a knowledge gap exists with respect to their socio-economic valuation.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0618
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge the immense assistance of Prof. Anthony Amoah for his advice and comments. Special thanks to Mr Ansu Gyeabour for professionally designing the map on the study location. Global Green Grants, UK, under Grant number 2018-2472, 2018 supported data collection. The author’s opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the position of Global Green Grants.
Citation
Korle, K. (2023), "Drivers of willingness to pay for reforestation of urban ecosystems in Ghana", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 50 No. 12, pp. 1688-1701. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0618
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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