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Are citizens' juries a useful tool for assessing environmental value?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

JACKIE ROBINSON ,
BETH CLOUSTON ,
JUNGHO SUH  and
MILANI CHALOUPKA
JACKIE ROBINSON*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
BETH CLOUSTON
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research Centre for Coastal Zone and Waterways Management, Meiers Road, Indooroopilly 4067, Australia
JUNGHO SUH
Affiliation:
School of Natural and Rural Systems Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
MILANI CHALOUPKA
Affiliation:
Ecological Modelling Services P/L, PO Box 6510, University of Queensland, St Lucia 4067, Australia
*
*Correspondence: Dr J. Robinson Tel: +61 7 33656349 Fax: +61 7 33667290 e-mail: j.robinson@economics.uq.edu.au
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Summary

Stated preference valuation surveys, such as choice modelling, are the preferred choice for environmental valuation of water quality improvements. Such willingness to pay (WTP) surveys commonly rely on face-to-face interviews or mail-out questionnaires on a relatively large representative sample of the target population. There is increasing concern that survey respondents may have insufficient information and limited opportunity to deliberate prior to stating their preferences about their WTP. Citizens' juries have been proposed as a novel way to overcome these limitations, providing information from expert witnesses and facilitating informed discussion within the jury, which is composed of members of the affected community. A choice modelling survey, using a 23-person citizens' jury, was conducted to estimate WTP for improvements in water quality in the Bremer River, one of the most polluted waterways in south-east Queensland, Australia. The choice modelling survey conducted pre- and post-exposure of the jurors to expert information about water quality in the Bremer River evaluated the usefulness of the jury process. A significant improvement in juror understanding was found in their responses to the survey. Importantly, following exposure to information from expert witnesses, jurors' educational background ceased to be important in determining their WTP. These findings suggest that citizens' juries could be valuable in overcoming the information problems associated with standard WTP surveys.

Keywords

Australiachoice modellingcitizens' jurywater qualitywillingness to pay
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 351 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2009

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