Assessing willingness to pay for the terraced landscape of vineyards in mt. Etna (italy)

Dry stone walls often characterizes the agricultural landscape and the conservation of the terraced landscape can provide social and economic benefits for local communities. Nevertheless, in recent years many terraced landscapes have been destroyed to increase the arable land and therefore the profit of farmers. In order to avoid this, an increasing role can be played by private funds that can compensate farmers to maintain the dry stone walls inside their farms. The aim of this survey is to assess the benefits for the local community provided by the terraced vineyard landscape in Mt Etna (Italy). For this purpose, we estimated the willingness to pay to preserve the aforementioned landscape by using a Contingent Valuation approach. Results of our study show that the willingness to pay of local communities for the terraced vineyards of Mt Etna is positive, but the preservation of this historical resource implies the development of an environmental awareness and appropriate environmental education among potential users.