Abstract
Climate change might increase the risk of salmon pisciculture operations by reducing the freshwater supply. Technological change is often regarded as a key aspect of climate adaptation. This paper presents the results of a labeled Choice Experiment designed to explore the preferences of salmon pisciculture managers for recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and nature-based solutions (NbS) in Chile. We found that the managers consider not only the investment costs but also the environmental consequences of the technology and the social acceptability of the industry. While economic attributes primarily drive investment decisions for RAS, environmental and temporal factors are more significant when adopting NbS. We also found that managers of salmon land-based farms located in higher-risk zones are less likely to adopt new technology. We interpret this as evidence that producers have not yet been significantly affected by climate change in the study zones and are overconfident about the likelihood of future climate-related events. This finding highlights the need to raise awareness of the more adverse impacts associated with climate change that are expected for the sector in the future.
