Economic Valuation of National Parks
Attributes
Medium: Land
Country: Thailand
Analytical Framework(s): Contingent Ranking, Contingent Valuation
Unit(s): Average Net Benefit, Willingness to Pay
Study Date: 1997
Publication Date: 1998
Major Result(s)
| Category | Resource/Environmental Good | THB, per person (1997) |
THB, per person (2014)1 |
USD, per person (2014)2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Park - CRM | Doi Inthanon | 50.48 | 72.16 | 2.19 |
| National Park - CRM | Mae Sa Waterfall3 | 35.12 | 50.21 | 1.53 |
| National Park - CVM | Doi Inthanon | 27.46 | 39.26 | 1.19 |
| National Park - CVM | Mae Sa Waterfall | 18.38 | 26.28 | 0.80 |
| Recommended Basic Entrance Fee | Doi Inthanon | 40.00 | 57.18 | 1.74 |
| Recommended Basic Entrance Fee | Mae Sa Waterfall | 20.00 | 28.59 | 0.87 |
About the Inflation Adjustment: Prices in Thailand (THB) changed by 42.96% from 1997 to 2014 (aggregated from annual CPI data), so the study values were multiplied by 1.43 to express them in 2014 prices. The study values could be expressed in any desired year (for example, to 2025) by following the same inflation calculation and being sensitive to directional (forward/backward) aggregations using your own CPI/inflation data.
Study Note: Since the contingent ranking (CRM) and valuation methods (CVM) yielded different results for the same environmental good, the study interpreted the recreational values obtained from CRM as the maximum amount an average person truly gains from visiting each recreational area within the park, while the recreational value obtained from asking the open-ended WTP question (CVM) as the average amount a person would want to pay for visiting each recreational area within the park. In other words, the true value of the national parks obtained from the CRM will be moderated by what is the socially acceptable value of these parks obtained from the CVM in recommending an appropriate entrance fee.
Study Details
Summary: The study successfully employed the contingent ranking method to value recreational areas around Chiang Mai City, namely Doi Inthanon National park and Mae Sa Waterfall. CRM addresses the concept of substitutability between recreational areas through analysis, and also systematically determines the recreational value of and hence entrance fees for these recreational areas, since the entrance fee for national parks will reflect the level of recreational services of each recreational area. The CRM simplifies the CVM, in that respondents find it easier to rank their preferences in the contingent ranking format than having to respond with an exact amount to open-ended WTP questions.
Site Characteristics: Doi Inthanon National Park occupies an area of 482 square kilometers and is located about 60 kilometers from Chiang Mai City. It takes about two hours to travel to the site from Chiang Mai City. Another 50 kilometers stretch from the entrance gate near the foot of the mountain to the summit of Doi Inthanon. Doi Inthanon is the highest point of Thailand, where the temperature can drop below 0°C being at 2,565 meters above sea level. Its geography is mountainous, with streams, waterfalls, caves, cliffs and meadows scattered throughout the sea. These features of the area attract both local and foreign visitors. Moreover, Doi Inthanon has ecological importance to Thais in terms of plant species, genetics and biodiversity. On the other hand, Mae Sa Waterfall is a section of Suthep-Pui National Park, and is about 20 kilometers north of Chiang Mai City. The other separate section is Doi Suthep, the value of which is not reported in this database review mainly because the author suggested that a zero entrance fee would be charged as before, given the difficulty of assessing the predominantly spiritual value of the Suthep Temple on the site. Mae Sa Waterfall is the best known among the three waterfalls in the Mae Sa section, though it is limited in terms of recreational activities compared to Doi Inthanon. Visitors to Mae Sa Waterfall can engage in some form of relaxation near the waterfall such as swimming, dining or picnicking in the two to three hours that they could ideally spend in the site. An added attraction of the Mae Sa Waterfall may be the culinary service and ready access to food and drinks in the food stalls located adjacent to the waterfall.
Comments: The open-ended questions might have some strategic bias, since the moderators asked different questions for the same idea during the separate interviews. Thus, the researcher recommended the contingent ranking method as a better choice for valuing resources as it will help to reduce strategic responses and survey error. The CRM analyses ranked data by ordered logit estimation. The study recommended the adoption of a non-linear indirect utility function and hence captured the diminishing marginal utility from any increase in consumption of environmental goods for further research.