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1 February 2017 The Economic Impact of Labeled Regional Products: The Experience of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch
Florian Knaus, Lea Ketterer Bonnelame, Dominik Siegrist
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Abstract

Protected area management bodies are increasingly required to address economic development alongside the original goal of conservation. This is especially true for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) biosphere reserves, which are expected to function as models for sustainable development. Economic development has been achieved in many places through nature-based tourism. Sale of products labeled as coming from protected areas is considered promising in this respect too, especially in Europe, but their economic impact has not been assessed so far. This study estimated the gross added value generated by labeled products from the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch—a rural, mountainous region in Switzerland. After a management-guided phase of building up credibility, identity, and innovations, labeled products generated a remarkable gross added value of US$ 5.8 million in 2014, 13 years after the product label was introduced. This corresponds to 4% of the jobs in agriculture and forestry and 1% of all jobs in the region. Given potential synergies with biodiversity, tourism, individual well-being, and other assets, labeled products can be true advantages for protected areas and their managers.

© 2017. Knaus et al. This open access article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please credit the authors and the full source.
Florian Knaus, Lea Ketterer Bonnelame, and Dominik Siegrist "The Economic Impact of Labeled Regional Products: The Experience of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch," Mountain Research and Development 37(1), 121-130, (1 February 2017). https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-16-00067.1
Received: 1 September 2016; Accepted: 1 November 2016; Published: 1 February 2017
KEYWORDS
added value
agriculture
biosphere reserve
forestry
labeled products
regional economy
Switzerland
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