| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立嘉義大學 === 森林暨自然資源學系研究所 === 105 === Agriculture is an important land use in Taiwan; however, in most area of Taiwan, the conventional farming, which uses pesticides and herbicides, is very common. The use of pesticides and herbicides might have a negative effect on wildlife in the habitat. Recently, environment-friendly farming, which no pesticides, chemical fertilizer and herbicides is used, has been promoted to improve the quality of habitat. Furthermore, Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation and the Taiwan Forestry Bureau develop “Green Conservation Label” to promote environment-friendly products as well as to enhance wildlife conservation. The endangered leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis chinensis) is the apex predator in lowland area of Taiwan. Recent studies show that the home range of leopard cats include many agricultural areas, which raises the concern that prey with pesticides remain might have a negative effect on leopard cats. Thus, by promoting environment-friendly agriculture is possible to achieve the goal of beneficial to leopard cat conservation. This study aims to understand the willingness of consumers to purchase Green Conservation Label products and leopard-cat-friendly products, and the willingness to pay for leopard cat conservation by a questionnaire survey. The study developed a self-designed questionnaire and investigated consumers from environment-friendly market and traditional market around Taiwan. I collected 423 respondents from environment-friendly markets and 389 respondents from traditional markets, in total 819 valid respondents. I analysised the differences between the consumers from two kind of markets by descriptive statistics, t-test and Chi-square test. We also calculated the benefit of leopard cat conservation. The results show the average willingness to pay per person for leopard cat conservation is NT$762.43. The consumer who has bought Green Conservation products, and knows leopard cat and leopard cat-friendly products better has more willingness to pay. Therefore, we should promote leopard-cat-friendly products. According to our study, we can promote leopard cat conservation or sell related products in organic shops and supermarkets.
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