estimating the value of improvement in lake urmia’s environmental condition: application of choice experiment approach

the lake urmia and satellite wetlands was selected as a demonstration site for the undp/gef/doe conservation of iranian wetlands project. this project aims to demonstrate reduction of the major threats of this wetland protected area coordinated through an integrated management plan. we developed a choice experiment to examine public preferences and elicit their willingness to pay on improvements in lake’s indicators toward good environmental status. a pilot choice experiment study was administered in urmia municipality and the data were analyzed using mixed logit model. the results revealed that residents of this municipality may strongly prefer improvement in water quantity and are willing to pay significant amounts (26000 rls per household per year) to promote current water level to the high level. furthermore, water quality, numbers of flamingos and artemia stock (23000, 14670 and 11330 rls per household per year respectively) were identified as next important issues that warrant additional management attention.