Public preferences and values for cultivated land in mining area in China

Although mining is a path toward regional development and poverty reduction, mining area facing growing land use conflicts among mining, agricultural and conservation uses. Taking Shahejie town, a mining town in Jiangxi Province, China, as a case study, this paper tries to find out the defining element of the preferences and values that the public holds for cultivated land in mining area. This paper employed a choice experiment method to investigate public preferences and values for the agricultural land protection in mining area. We selected three ecological (flora and fauna species, air quality, water quality), two socio-economic (developing risk of agricultural land conversion, openness degree) and one monetary (willingness to pay) attributes. The data were analyzed using multinomial logit and multinomial mixed logit specifications to estimate respondents´ WTP for alternative cultivated land protection plans. The results indicated that air quality and water quality are more significant determinants in influencing the public´s cultivated land preferences.