TY - JOUR
T1 - Frontier community valuation for forest patches: the case of wondo-wosha subcatchment, southern nations, nationalities and peoples region Ethiopia
AU - Mengistu, T.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Many societies recognize forests as valuable resources. Particularly, in resource
dependent rural areas of developing countries, communities tend to create a body of
natural resources around them. Forests are one of these resources. The objective of this
paper is to define the value and contribution of forests to the rural household economy.
The study applied contingent valuation method. A questionnaire survey was conducted
on 148 respondents each representing households from six peasant associations
surrounding the natural forest. Summary results of the mean willingness to pay for a
single household was 30.30 Ethiopian birr (ETB) (US$ 1 = 8.7 ETB) per year and 2.50
ETB per month. The mean willingness to accept for a single household was 44.6 ETB per
year and 3.70 ETB per month. Moreover, about 72% of the respondents gave the value of
the forest at a price of 30 ETB or more per year while 18% of the respondents agreed to
pay nothing assuming that they have traditional rights to the land and/or have low level of
income. The analysis suggested that household income, as indicated by the farm and
livestock has brought minimum influence on appropriating the values. Therefore, it can
be concluded that, even the poor households were willing to pay the average values in
terms of time or labor contribution to save the natural forest like the better-off
households. On the other hand, community valuations for forest resources in the
catchment do not vary much in magnitude when the payment vehicle was changed from
cash to labor contribution. Therefore, people are concerned about conservation issues,
what so ever their status and the situations are. The concept of valuing forests is well
supported by the community, which indicates the importance of recognizing and
nurturing such positive attitudes for better people¿forest area relationships.
Key words: Contingent valuation; Valuation; National accounting, Household economy,
Forest conservation
AB - Many societies recognize forests as valuable resources. Particularly, in resource
dependent rural areas of developing countries, communities tend to create a body of
natural resources around them. Forests are one of these resources. The objective of this
paper is to define the value and contribution of forests to the rural household economy.
The study applied contingent valuation method. A questionnaire survey was conducted
on 148 respondents each representing households from six peasant associations
surrounding the natural forest. Summary results of the mean willingness to pay for a
single household was 30.30 Ethiopian birr (ETB) (US$ 1 = 8.7 ETB) per year and 2.50
ETB per month. The mean willingness to accept for a single household was 44.6 ETB per
year and 3.70 ETB per month. Moreover, about 72% of the respondents gave the value of
the forest at a price of 30 ETB or more per year while 18% of the respondents agreed to
pay nothing assuming that they have traditional rights to the land and/or have low level of
income. The analysis suggested that household income, as indicated by the farm and
livestock has brought minimum influence on appropriating the values. Therefore, it can
be concluded that, even the poor households were willing to pay the average values in
terms of time or labor contribution to save the natural forest like the better-off
households. On the other hand, community valuations for forest resources in the
catchment do not vary much in magnitude when the payment vehicle was changed from
cash to labor contribution. Therefore, people are concerned about conservation issues,
what so ever their status and the situations are. The concept of valuing forests is well
supported by the community, which indicates the importance of recognizing and
nurturing such positive attitudes for better people¿forest area relationships.
Key words: Contingent valuation; Valuation; National accounting, Household economy,
Forest conservation
M3 - Article
SN - 1563-3705
VL - 8
SP - 281
EP - 293
JO - Ethiopian Journal of Natural Resources
JF - Ethiopian Journal of Natural Resources
IS - 2
ER -