Valuation of cultural ecosystem services in urban parks with different social contexts in the city of Recife (PE), Brazil

Abstract

The accelerated process of urbanization of the planet and the significant accumulation of the human population make the existence of green areas in cities more and more necessary. Even so, in developing countries, measuring the cultural benefits generated by these areas is scarce. The insertion of ecosystem services into urban planning is also very infrequent. This work sought to estimate the monetary value of the benefits generated by urban parks in different social contexts in the city of Recife. For this, we used the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), applying 421 questionnaires in three parks located in neighborhoods with different characteristics. We adopted the Bivariate Probit to analyze the dichotomous questions and calculate the willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. The estimated flow of annual benefits in cultural ecosystem services is calculated based on two scenarios of potential beneficiaries who live between 800 m and 4,800 m from the parks. The results showed that the annual WTP varied between R$ 34 and R$ 87. The user characteristics such as age and sex were significant for the model, while the education level was not. Users with higher income had a higher WTP in absolute terms, while in proportional terms, users with lower income had a higher WTP. In this way, the results seem to demonstrate that the cultural ecosystem services provided by urban parks are more important in less favored social contexts. This factor can support more equitable planning in providing these public spaces.