Austria’s cultural landscape has been shaped by agriculture for centuries. Farming extends in alpine regions up to high altitudes and also has a high value on alpine pastures (cultural asset). Especially there you can often find a unique flora and fauna (natural asset). The aim of this project was to gain a better understanding of societal preferences for the management of alpine pastures and mountain meadows and to identify utilization strategies and framework conditions in order to develop an optimum of cultural and natural assets and also to consider recreational aspects. For this purpose, participatory research methods and a discrete choice experiment were combined to calculate the preferences and marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) of potential visitors to alpine pastures and mountain meadows of the case study region. The Eisenwurzen region (Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Styria), which spans several federal states, served as the case study region. Six crucial design features of alpine pastures and mountain meadows were identified in the participatory process, and the experiment was conducted in a survey. 360 people from the Eisenwurzen and surrounding area participated. Statistical models were then applied to calculate preferences and MWTP for each design feature. The results show overall positive preferences for all non-monetary attributes, especially in relation to a strong increase in the diversity of plant and insect species, but also for knowledge transfer with. On average across all respondents, the highest MWTP is given for high diversity of plant and insect species, followed by information boards, nature trails, knowledge transfer apps, and awareness raising. This is followed by more interactive forms of knowledge transfer and awareness raising, a high proportion of regional food, and stay options with food and accommodation. Looking at marginal willingness to pay by group, the differences in preferences described earlier become even more apparent. Based on further interactions with stakeholders, necessary framework conditions and alternative implementation measures for alpine pastures and mountain meadows were outlined in order to support policy makers in developing appropriate strategies, and to initiate cooperations between agriculture, nature conservation and tourism in the Eisenwurzen region. |