Stated preference data on the insurance value of forests in Switzerland

We present stated preference data for improved forest management measures from seven Swiss municipalities in the Cantons of Grisons and Valais. The data was collected between October 2019 and February 2020 using an online questionnaire. We invited 10289 households to participate and received 939 responses. The online questionnaire consisted of two main parts: (i) an online choice experiment and (ii) questions on the sociodemographic characteristics of the responding households. The choice experiment confronted households with twelve consecutive choice tasks. Each choice task consisted of three options with a varying degree of avalanche and rock fall risk reduction due to improved forest management. The options further differed with respect to the way the costs for the improved forest management are allocated and the way they are calculated. We additionally provided each of the options with a cost attribute, allowing for the calculation of willingness to pay measures. At the end of the choice experiment we asked five de-briefing questions and eight attitudinal questions. Additionally, we asked the responding households to state their willingness to take risks. The sociodemographic characteristics collected in the second part of the questionnaire allow for an analysis of the impact they have on the choices we observed in the first part of the questionnaire.

• Swiss National Science Foundation SNF (link) (Grant/Award: 407340_172399)

An analysis of the choice data and further interpretive insights are presented in “Determining the insurance value of ecosystems: A discrete choice study on natural hazard protection by forests”