Choice Experiments in the Prioritization of Management Policies in Protected Natural Areas

The main purpose of this research is evaluate the structure of social preferences of four intervention measures in Molino de Flores National Park (MFNP) of the Republic of Mexico, grouped in a) vegetation cover, b) recreation spaces, c) restoration of old buildings and d) access points and parking; for all of which users express a choice that affects their welfare. The approach is mostly empirical, and combines field work, experimental design, and environmental valuing techniques. By the method of choice experiment, it is concluded that the implementation of the conservation and recovery program in MFNP should prioritize improvements in vegetation cover and restoration of old buildings, because these operations generate greater social benefits; to prioritize these types of management policies, a multinomial logit model was used, which allowed to estimate the marginal willingness to pay for each attribute.