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Opportunities and limitations of contingent valuation surveys to determine national park entrance fees: evidence from Costa Rica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 1998

STEVEN SHULTZ ,
JORGE PINAZZO  and
MIGUEL CIFUENTES
STEVEN SHULTZ
Affiliation:
North Dakota State University, P.O. Box 5636, Fargo, North Dakota, 58105, USA
JORGE PINAZZO
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Secretariat, Paraguay
MIGUEL CIFUENTES
Affiliation:
Director WWF-Central America
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Abstract

A contingent valuation method (CVM) survey to determine foreign and resident willingness to pay (WTP) for return visits to two different Costa Rican national parks was administered in 1995. WTP values were estimated for future entrance fees associated with proposed improvements to infrastructure and services in the Poas Volcano and the Manuel Antonio parks. Resulting logistic CVM models were statistically robust and mean WTP for entrance fees differed among the parks and were considerably higher than current fees. Results indicate that even in a developing country setting, the CVM is a useful tool to help determine park entrance fees in spite of the following methodological limitations which are recommended for further study: the need to include potential park visitors in survey samples; the lack of detailed information framing and contingent scenarios for park related WTP questions; and the threat of cultural-strategic biases when surveying residents of a developing country.

Type
Policy Options
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , February 1998 , pp. 131 - 149
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This research was conducted when all of the authors worked at the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Funding support was also provided by the Central American Office of the World Wildlife Fund. However, the authors are responsible for all potential errors as well as the views and opinions expressed in the paper.