Spatial non-market VAluation for Biodiversity policy

Biodiversity policy is a fundamental component for sustainable development and actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. For efficient and effective policy implementation it is crucial to understand where policy interventions can generate greatest ecological and socio-economic benefits. However, accurate spatial information about public good values of biodiversity is missing. The Spatial non-market VAluation for Biodiversity (SVAB) project aims to address this gap through four objectives. It will: 1) develop a novel spatially explicit survey valuation methodology to improve the accuracy of non-market valuation of biodiversity; 2) develop a spatial sampling methodology to improve the efficiency of sampling in spatial valuation surveys; 3) use these methodologies to assess the non-market values associated with nature restoration and extension of the nature protected areas network (Natura 2000) in the Czech Republic; 4) engage with policy-makers and citizens to enhance the relevance of the methods and outcomes and inform decision making in policy and public spheres. SVAB will develop an individualised choice maps approach for stated preference research that enables testing the impacts of a wide set of spatial factors on public preferences for policy changes, test a spatial sampling strategy that will decrease survey costs in valuation and broader research, and improve the reliability of biodiversity valuation to inform spatial targeting of biodiversity policy. SVAB will enable the applicant to innovate spatial non-market valuation methods, develop new analytical and transferable skills, create new knowledge on societal benefits of nature, and publish the excellent research in leading journals in order to become an independent researcher. The project is highly interdisciplinary, combining economic and econometric methods, spatial analysis approaches, and biodiversity and ecosystem sciences.