Defining agri-environmental schemes in the buffer areas of a natural regional park: An application of choice experiment using the latent class approach

Buffer areas can be created for improving the sustainable management of Protected Areas (PAs). These areas differ in their governance both from the park and from the rest of the territory. In the present study, we used choice experiments for identifying a set of political environmental measures to be applied in the buffer areas of the Trasimeno Regional Park (Region of Umbria). Particularly, we focused our attention on the role played by the farmers in those areas. We used choice experiments in a planning context, highlighting their ability to elicit the preferences of a group of producers and to identify several classes with different orientations, through the Latent Class Approach. We individuated classes of farmers with very different preferences about the possible measures to be applied in the contiguous areas. Our work provides two interesting indications for park management: the interest of some farmers in creating contiguous areas for the Trasimeno Park and the opportunity for policy makers to propose very different measures because farmers’ interests are not uniform.