Economic evaluation of recreational use of forests roads on the example of Pisek City Forests Ltd.

Abstract

An additional objective of the research, which was a part of the project “Quantification of the Effect of the Selected Forest Enterprise on the Local Economy of the Region” of the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of Mendel University in Brno conducted in 2016 was a large case study of the property of Pisek City Forests Ltd. This article is focused on surveying the willingness of area visitors to pay for usage of the recreational function of forests and evaluation of the used method. The evaluated part of the questionnaire survey was based on the method of contingent valuation founded on the willingness of respondents to pay for recreational function. It was found in the results of the questionnaire survey that visitors are not very willing to pay for recreational function, and it is especially because forests in the area of Pisek City Forests Ltd. are perceived as public assets and thus access to them should be without fee. Furthermore, there were problems found with the method. Thus it is necessary to find a new way of evaluation of the recreational potential of the area.

Forest Park Visitors Opinions and Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Development of the Germia Forest and Recreational Park

“…Looking at our WTP results compared with some of the previous studies. Some of the respondents insisted that there is no need to pay anything for the use of the forest park services as the government should maintain it; this is line with Březina et al [28]. Looking at the nature of satisfaction with forest park services and the WTP results, one can argue that even though other factors such as household characteristics affect the WTP, use of the forest services and befits to the society play a vital role.…”

“…Therefore, services such as pedestrian and bicycle lanes reduce human destructions, and typically people would follow these marked routes. This results in a balance between private and public welfare concerning the optimal utilization of the environmental resources and deciding its importance in line with associated externalities [28].…”

“…Its method is based on survey questionnaire interviews. A population sample referred to as respondents give their opinion in the survey to elicit participants' preferences and WTP for the resource or willingness to accept (WTA) financial payment to conserve the environmental asset [5,[15][16][17][18][19][20][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43].…”

“…This is because WTP estimation is a hypothetical scenario where individuals state their preferences. Their choice can be based on the conditions and characteristics of the resource in question; therefore, the WTP reflects an individual's economic valuation of the goods under investigation [5,[12][13][14][15][16][17][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

“…The WTP estimate is a hypothetical non-market value depending on a scenario described to the study participants before asking about the amount of money they are willing to pay. The situation describes the conditions and characteristics of the resource being evaluated; therefore, the WTP reflects an individual's economic evaluation of the goods in question [5,[15][16][17][18][19][20][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44].…”