An estimation of willingness to pay for asparagus (Asparagus racemosus Willd.) collectors in Makawanpur District, Nepal

T. N. Maraseni, J. Maroulis and G. Cockfield
Additional contact information
T. N. Maraseni: Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments (ACSC), University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Toowoomba, Australia
J. Maroulis: Faculty of Education and ACSC, USQ, Toowoomba, Australia
G. Cockfield: Faculty of Business and ACSC, USQ, Toowoomba, Australia

Journal of Forest Science, 2008, vol. 54, issue 3, 131-137

Abstract: The collection and sale of asparagus (Asparagus racemosus Willd.) is a major source of income for Praja and Tamang castes around the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) in Nepal. However, the forests where asparagus is harvested are becoming depleted threatening the livelihood of collectors. To address this issue, at sustainable harvesting practices, the research reported here applied the contingent valuation method (bidding game) and estimated the average willingness to pay (WTP) of collectors to two asparagus collection scenarios. In the first scenario, if forests under the Department of Forests jurisdiction were managed for sustainable harvesting at 1995 rates, the average WTP of collectors was 4.4 NR/kg. In the second scenario, if the forest in the RCNP is managed in such a way that both the current harvesting rate of asparagus is sustained and they are legally allowed to collect asparagus at the present rate, the average WTP of collectors was 8.35 NR/kg. Consequently, there is a good chance of earning revenue for the government and sustaining the livelihood of asparagus dependents by the sustainable management of the Department's and the National Park's forests and giving legal permissions to collect asparagus from the National Park, which would have happened anyway but with financial and legal risks to collectors.

Keywords: Asparagus racemosus; willingness to pay; contingent valuation method; Praja; Tamang (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/3099-JFS.html (text/html)
http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/3099-JFS.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:54:y:2008:i:3:id:3099-jfs

DOI: 10.17221/3099-JFS

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Forest Science is currently edited by Mgr. Ilona Procházková

More articles in Journal of Forest Science from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().