Identification and assessment of the ecosystem services of the Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar Regional Park (Murcia, Spain) based on user surveys

The Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar Regional Park is a saline wetland located in the north of the restinga of Mar Menor lagoon (Region of Murcia, southeast Spain). It is part of the Natura 2000 Network, and has been declared a special conservation area and special protection area, as well as being an important enclave for salt production and tourism. This study offers a preliminary assessment of the ecosystem services of this regional park through pre-test surveys answered by users of the protected area. The contingent valuation method, as well as the choice experiments method declared preference methods were used. Some 262 tourist pre-test surveys were conducted between August and December 2019, and these guided the writing of the final surveys. In addition, the ecosystem services offered by the regional park were defined by analysing the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services in its latest version V5.1 (obtaining 32 types of ecosystem services that are evaluated in the final surveys with four response options).