Assessing individual and social values of cultural services of a protected area through online deliberation

The non-material benefits obtained through interaction with nature are known as cultural services. We employed an online survey to value cultural services provided by the Fanjing Mountain National Nature Reserve, China. The valuation combined a stated-preference approach with online deliberation, where participants considered and discussed the services through typing in chat groups. The services perceived by most participants, in descending order, were spiritual experiences, recreation, aesthetic appreciation, education, and scientific value. In two hypothetical scenarios, where participants were assumed to be potential visitors and local staff (tour guides), respectively, they expressed both individual and social preferences for cultural services. Individual preferences primarily represented their own interests without necessarily or explicitly considering social benefits, whereas social preferences explicitly considered what was right or desirable for society. Overall, the social preferences were lower, more converged, and less affected by demographic variables (e.g., income) than the individual preferences in both scenarios. However, such differences between individual and social preferences were not always statistically significant. Moreover, participants valued cultural services significantly higher as potential tour guides than as visitors, as their psychological states, substitutes for cultural services, prior rights to the services, and certainty in interacting with nature varied with their stakeholder roles.