Valuing Urban Agriculture in Indonesia: Cultural Ecosystem Services and Willingness to Pay in Rapidly Urbanizing Cities

Urban Farm DB summary

This study evaluates willingness to pay (WTP) for urban ecosystem services — particularly cultural and provisioning services delivered by urban agriculture (UA) — in rapidly urbanizing Indonesian cities, using a Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) structured survey and logistic regression to identify socioeconomic predictors of WTP, supplemented by a review of comparative case-study literature to contextualize the findings. The results show strong public support for UA, with higher WTP associated with cultural ecosystem services tied to heritage, aesthetics, and community identity. Key predictors of WTP were income, education, environmental concern, and prior exposure to UA, with regional differences reflecting cultural and policy context. The study notes methodological limitations of CVM in capturing intangible values and advocates mixed-methods approaches incorporating ethnographic and participatory tools.