Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural and Natural Resources, Ardakan University
2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Rangeland Management, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ardakan University, Ardakan, Iran
Abstract
Attention to rangeland ecosystems is important because rangeland ecosystems have significant impacts on human agriculture and food security and also have various functions that would not be possible for humans to live without. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to estimate the conservation value and investigate the contribution and ranking of selected Sheikh Moussa rangeland ecosystem services through people's preferences in the form of Choice Modeling (CE). For the next study, the most important Sheikh Moussa rangeland services, including biodiversity, medicinal plants, ecotourism and artefacts, have been identified through field survey and ecosystem services separation.
In order to investigate the preferences of the individuals, 170 questionnaires were distributed among the population of the Eastern Bandipur district in the 2017. The results of the present study showed that individuals' annual Willingness To Pay (WTP) to improve the status of the desired ecosystem services amounted to 66692.29 Rials ($ 2.55) and the total value of services rendered was 2667 million Rials ($ 8219.09). The results show that the variables of income, being the head of household and visiting the area are the most important factors affecting the willingness to pay. Based on the values obtained, the priority of the people of the region is to focus more on biodiversity services. Also, the value obtained by the selection test method was able to provide the contribution of each function according to Lancaster's theory. Consequently, ..
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