2002 World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists

Stated preference methods are used to value foregone cultural use of the Penobscot River in Maine. This river has historically been central to the life and livelihood of the Penobscot Nation prior to contamination by dioxin from an upstream pulp mill. This study implemented a series of phone and mail surveys to obtain valuation, preference and demographic information from a census of tribal members. This Tribe has prior experience with the use of referendums to decide per capita cash distributions and evaluation of cash settlement offers in a litigation setting. This prior experience provided a unique setting for applying a referendum contingent valuation vehicle to evaluate the case at hand. Evaluation of the valuation responses included a scope test, multivariate models, comparison to prior Penobscot referendum responses, consistency with beliefs about cleanup and natural recovery, and consistency with individual motives, including cultural use. Specific methods are developed for estimating the share of total foregone use value due to cultural motives. The general methods could have applicability in other settings where tribes are accustomed to referendum decision-making.



	Paper Title:	Valuing Foregone Tribal Use: A Case Study Of The Penobscot Nation.
	Presenting Author:	John Duffield (University of Montana)
	Coauthor 1:	Chris Neher
	Coauthor 2:	David Patterson
	Coauthor 3:
	Abstract:	Stated preference methods are used to value foregone cultural use of the Penobscot River in Maine. This river has historically been central to the life and livelihood of the Penobscot Nation prior to contamination by dioxin from an upstream pulp mill. This study implemented a series of phone and mail surveys to obtain valuation, preference and demographic information from a census of tribal members. This Tribe has prior experience with the use of referendums to decide per capita cash distributions and evaluation of cash settlement offers in a litigation setting. This prior experience provided a unique setting for applying a referendum contingent valuation vehicle to evaluate the case at hand. Evaluation of the valuation responses included a scope test, multivariate models, comparison to prior Penobscot referendum responses, consistency with beliefs about cleanup and natural recovery, and consistency with individual motives, including cultural use. Specific methods are developed for estimating the share of total foregone use value due to cultural motives. The general methods could have applicability in other settings where tribes are accustomed to referendum decision-making.
	Link to paper:	Not available

	Session / Day / Time	1G / Monday / 8:00 - 10:00 am

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