Valuing Tropical Rainforest Protection Using the Contingent Valuation Method

In the last several decades, the intensity and scale of forest exploitation have increased significantly. A large number of developing countries experiencing increasing deforestation trends are also facing acute shortages of fuelwood, fodder, industrial t imber, and other forest products for domestic USC . Besides potential environmental degradation, depletion of forests and trees may exacerbate poverty, displace indigenous populations, and impede agricultural productivity. Deforestation, especially in the humid t ropics , has ser ious regional and global implicat ions (potent ia l c l imate change, loss of biodiversity, and degradation of large watersheds). To address these problems, a cooperative effort on a global scale is needed to assist countries in implementing effective, long-term forest conservation and management programmes. An essential element of this effort is the establishment of an internat ional fund to provide f inancial support for ini t iat ives to s tabi l ize forests in developing countries. Given that many countries with urgent forest resource problems have limited financial resources and many of the benefits of improved forest management and conservation are global in nature, a strong argument can be made for international cost-sharing (see for example Sharma et a l . , 1992) . Governments that provide financing for development and conservation programmes are interested in knowing the extent of public support for such act ivi t ies . To assess the economic value of benefi ts to US residents from rainforest protection activit ies in the tropics, a national mail survey was employed. These benefi ts were estimated with the contingent valuation method (CVM), a non-market valuation technique widely used to value environmental amenities (Smith, 1993). Most applicat ions of CVM have been directed toward assigning economic values to local , regional, or national environmental goods. This study represents one of the first applications of CVM for a global environmental good. This chapter describes the design and implementat ion of the survey and presents analysis of the resul ts .