Valuation of Marine Ecosystem Services in the Black Sea

The Black Sea region faces pressures on ecosystem services (ES) due to invasive species, waste, eutrophication, and biodiversity loss. We apply a stated preference technique, i.e. a choice experiment (CE), aiming to compare three hypothetical scenarios regarding the welfare impact of ES on citizens’ lives in terms of willingness-to-pay (WTP). Initially, the distributed questionnaires underwentan econometric pre-test regarding the orthogonality of all CE scenarios in R-studio. Questionnaire distribution occurred from 29/05/2023 to 21/11/2023 with a total number of 375 responders from the three pilot sites: Turkey, Romania, and Georgia. The highest WTP occurred in Turkey (56.72€) for all scenarios followed by Georgia (49.04€), and Romania (47.96€). Moreover, the greater WTP value is demonstrated by Scenario C (25.51€) followed by Scenarios B (25.17€) and Scenario A (25.11€). Interesting socioeconomic characteristics derived from Cross-Tabulation Analysis that notably cannot impact the WTP are income, gender, and age. Furthermore, marital status and education might affect the WTP only in Romania, however, this is not demonstrated in Turkeyor Georgia. Interestingly, the higher level of education in Romania is linked to lower WTP, nevertheless, education typically relates to environmental sensitivity. Another aspect is that occupation can change responders’ WTP in Romania and Georgia, but not in Turkey. In essence, the economic valuation of ES through CE methodology can offer policymaking insights into Blue Growth initiatives.