On the Mismatches between the Monetary and Social Values of Air Purification in the Colombian Andean Region: A Case Study

Abstract

There is growing interest in air quality and air purification, due to current high pollution levels, their effects on human health, and implications for urban economies. Since the improvement of air quality carries important economic value, air-related benefits have been evaluated monetarily from two perspectives: the first relates to air quality improvements, while the second values air purification as an ecosystem function. This research opted for the second perspective, given that the study area (two Colombian municipalities) does not suffer from poor air quality conditions, but stakeholders prioritized this function as highly important to them. Contingent valuation methods were applied in order to identify the population’s probability of willingness to maintain the air purification function. Although individuals (n = 245) attribute a yearly monetary value of USD 1.5 million to air purification, it was found that, despite the high level of social importance that respondents assigned to air purification (mean = 4.7/5), this had no correlation with payment values (rho = 0.0134, p = 0.8350); that is, households do not really recognize the monetary value of all the benefits they receive or the benefits they would lose if the service suffers changes. Hence, it is posed that monetary values do not necessarily reflect the social importance that individuals assign to ecosystem services, and attention is called to the need to integrate social and monetary values into decision-making processes, so as to encompass the complexity of ecosystem services and conciliate conflicting valuation language.