ABSTRACT
Climate change is expected to cause extensive damage in coastal areas due to a rise in sea level and increasingly frequent violent storms. Scientists expect that, in particular, the nature and landscape of the German Wadden Sea, a coastal wetland ecosystem, will be negatively influenced. The adjacent salt marshes, a habitat for endangered species, have already been adversely affected in quality and quantity by human interference, such as by dam construction and waste disposal into the North Sea, and are expected to deteriorate even faster. However, it is possible to mitigate the consequences of climate change by taking suitable measures such as removing dams (Reise 1993, 1996). To obtain information about the population’s support for the protection of the Wadden Sea against the consequences of climate change, the willingness to pay (WTP) of German households was determined by using the contingent valuation method (CVM).1 Several studies have shown that non-use values can form an important part of the total economic value of environmental assets (Garrod and Willis 1996; Bateman and Langford 1997), particularly for highly unique resources. Therefore, non-use values were also thought to form an important part of the total economic value of the Wadden Sea. This area is a very valuable natural refuge, ranking third out of thirteen national parks in Germany.
