Willingness to Pay for Forest Existence Value and Sustainability

Dastan Bamwesigye, Petra Hlavackova, Andrea Sujová (), Jitka Fialova and Petr Kupec
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Dastan Bamwesigye: Department of Forestry and Wood Products Economics and Policy, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Petra Hlavackova: Department of Forestry and Wood Products Economics and Policy, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Jitka Fialova: Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Petr Kupec: Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Uganda is richly endowed with flora and fauna. Until the early 2000s, most of the types of vegetation have remained natural/virgin forests and shrubs until recent years, when human activities have damaged them. Understanding the different ways that people value such endangered forest resources is very important. The main hypothesis in our study is that willingness to pay (WTP) for forest existence value and sustainability depends on the preference for the same values. In addition, we examined socioeconomic characteristics, such as sex, education, and household incomes, which could influence the WTP for forest existence value and sustainability. We carried out field questionnaire interviews with the aim of ascertaining Willingness to Pay (WTP) for forest existence. The WTP values were in a range between 1 and 200 USD based on the contingent valuation method (CVM). A sample with a size of 203 was interviewed in selected towns and villages in Uganda, and the data collected were subjected to statistical analysis. The cross-tabulation of the expressed preferences illustrates that 81.9% of the representative sample are willing to pay for forest existence value and sustainability. We concluded that the willingness to pay for forest existence significantly depends on the preference for forest existence values and sustainability. Our results equally express that the mean WTP in this region is 15 USD per year and that over 60% are willing to pay this amount. The socioeconomic determinants’ results demonstrate heterogeneity and that over 90% of the respondents are willing to pay for forest existence, conservation, and sustainability.

Keywords: contingent valuation method; forest existence values; preference; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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