Measuring the WTP for Recreation and Biodiversity Protection Programs

Abstract

This paper focus on a contingent valuation (CV) exercise as to compute estimates for the willingness to pay (WTP) for recreation and biodiversity benefits of a Natural Park in Portugal. The CV survey gathers 1678 respondents and three development policy options. We refer to the Wilderness Areas (WA) tourism development scenario; the Recreational Areas (RA) tourism development scenario and, finally, a scenario version which is characterised by the tourism development of both WA and RA. The results show that the respondents evaluate the WA and RA differently. However, we find no statistical difference between the WTP for the WA and the WTP for the WA jointly with the RA. The last result can be interpreted as an indicator of an eventual presence of warm-glow in the WTP responses.