Norms and the willingness to pay for coastal ecosystem restoration: A case of the Tokyo Bay intertidal flats

Tokyo Bay's ecosystem has severely deteriorated due to land reclamation projects, which gradually claimed over 95% of the intertidal flats in the bay, beginning in the early 20th century. We conducted a contingent valuation study to examine the habitat protection and recreational value of intertidal flats in Tokyo Bay, Japan. To understand the motivations behind valuation responses, we examined respondents' latent ecosystem preferences and norms specific to Tokyo Bay's ecosystem by using factor analysis and cluster analysis. Our approach enables us to quantify the differences in motivations for ecosystem service restoration and relate them to the valuation of the ecosystem restoration project. We found that differences in norms, described by an awareness of the problem, an awareness of personal responsibility and an awareness of personal cost, resulted in significantly different valuations of the ecosystem. The scenario that ensured the protection of the natural habitat was preferred to the scenario that allowed for recreational use.