ECONOMIC VALUATION OF NGORONGORO CONSERVATION AREA: A Travel Cost Approach
Date
2009-09-01
Authors
Mwankemwa, Lusajo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to estimate the recreational value of Ngorongoro Conservation
Area (NCA) in Tanzania. To be able to give an estimate of the recreational value an
economic valuation technique -the Travel Cost Method (TCM) is applied. The method will
give rise to a demand function which can be applied in a regression model to estimate the
relationship between the number of visits and the variables like travel cost, individual Income
and educational level. This made it possible to derive the consumer surplus which is the value
used to represent the recreational value of the NCA. The data used in the study is based on a
sample of 240 visitors to the NCA.
The study found the annual consumer surplus for NCA in 2008 to be about 507 229 USD
(2008 prices) for the whole sample collected from the survey. However, the recreational
value of NCA has been estimated to about 169.1 USD per visit. It is also important to note
that the estimated value only represents one part of total economic value (recreational use
value); the other values of the site’s total economic value have not been estimated in this
study.
Description
Environmental Economics
Keywords
Environmental Valuation , Recreation Values , Travel Cost Method , Consumer Surplus.