Co-creation of economic value in peri-urban protected areas: Insights from nature conservation and nature-based recreation

The co-creation has proven to be an effective approach for enhancing the quality of decisions through a process of deliberation and collaborative management for protected areas. This approach has the potential to bridge the knowledge gap that often exists between the stakeholders, academic and administrative realms. This work proposes to use a co-creation process to determine the economic value of peri-urban protected areas, one of the most outstanding natural areas where the most drastic land-use changes tend to occur. The growing demand for conserving and visiting peri-urban natural protected areas is leading decision-makers to improve their knowledge of the socioeconomic values of these spaces. To this end, the Sierra Espuña Regional Park (SE-Spain) is employed as a case study to enable the implementation of a three-step process, whereby the social demand for nature conservation and nature-based recreation, and the key challenges and potentials of this peri-urban protected area are identified. The methodology employed was based on a contingent valuation survey and the travel cost method, in addition to a focus group where a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis was conducted. The results demonstrated the usefulness of the co-creation process to improve the knowledge of: the social preference for nature conservation, with a total economic value of 11,301,112 €/year; the recreational activities in nature, with a benefit of 4,921,840 €/year; and the main challenges and potentials of peri-urban areas, highlighting the bureaucracy to carry out the actions and the demand for ecotourism-related services. It therefore justifies the suitability of applying this type of collaborative approach between the academic, stakeholders and decision-makers realms as a preliminary step towards the formulation of more sustainable management measures for the achievement of urban social well-being. • Co-creation method for the economic value of peri-urban protected areas is presented. • A three-step process combining contingent valuation, travel cost method, and SWOT analysis is conducted. • Social preferences of nature conservation and nature-based recreation is evaluated. • Spatial and substitution effects influenced social preferences for nature conservation and nature-based recreation. • Stakeholders and decision-makers provided feedback to improve the management and conservation policies.