Heritage-sensitive interventions to support Indigenous peoples forest conservation: Evaluating an origin-label for highland produce in northern Thailand

Abstract

Global conservation policies increasingly recognize the vital role of local and Indigenous communities in ecosystem protection, but mechanisms to support such communities livelihoods in a conservation context remain limited. Based on participatory engagement with diverse highland communities in the northern Thai tropics, we co-designed a highland origin label with the intention to alleviate Indigenous livelihood pressures. This study assessed whether this label can positively influence downstream urban consumers willingness-to-pay for Indigenous highland communities produce, using cross-sectional, qualitative, and choice experimental data. The study was implemented between February and April 2025 across four urban markets in Chiang Mai City, Thailand, including actual buying decisions for strawberries and chayote fruits and experimental exposure to background information on Indigenous highland livelihoods. The results from 888 real-market consumers revealed a substantial willingness-to-pay premium for origin-labelled products, with +11.6 Thai Baht/+56.3% on average (chayote: +10.4 Thai Baht/+50.0%; strawberries: +12.6 Thai Baht, +61.1%). Higher willingness-to-pay was positively associated with prior experience of purchasing labelled products and interest in Indigenous rights, negatively with price-conscious shoppers, and not associated with exposure to livelihood information. Large classes of shoppers (at least 75.9%) exhibited high utility for the origin label. Qualitative responses indicated strong positive sentiment and label credibility, although with a risk of overinterpretation. We conclude that co-developed origin labels can elicit substantial consumer willingness-to-pay, but translating it into tangible support for Indigenous livelihoods would require further considerations of agricultural value chain optimisation, cooperative support, channels for direct and consumer-segment-specific marketing, and tackling problematic Indigenous stereotypes.

Daniele Asioli

Associate Professor in Agri-Food Economics and Marketing
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry

My main interests deal with agrifood marketing, behavioural economics, consumer research methods, economics of food, food policy, new food product development, new technologies, and multivariate statistical data analysis.