Willingness to pay for post-mining landscape restoration

Abstract

This paper examines the long-run impacts of mining-induced displacement and resettlement and uses the contingent valuation method to estimate displaced and resettled Mozambican households’ willingness to pay (measured in labour) to restore the landscape where they used to live before mining began there. Previous studies found that resettlement worsened the welfare of the communities affected, but these studies have generally been conducted shortly after the resettlements concerned had taken place while this study looks at longer-run impacts. The study results indicate that, on average, households were willing to contribute about nine working days per month. The results further indicate that resettled respondents had been adaptive and had used the monetary compensation they were given for resettlement to buy productive land to offset that lost due to resettlement. However, they still saw themselves as worse off than before their relocation. One explanation for this is that they are now far from marketplaces and the river, making it difficult to develop new sources of income and have access to water. Mitigation interventions and future resettlements should therefore think more carefully about selecting resettlement sites.