Abstract
Ziarat Juniper forest is 2nd largest Juniperus excelsa forest in the world after 1st being the Juniper forest in California. It is the oldest juniper forest in the world having 2500-3500 years old trees. Sustainable management of natural vegetation is a challenging task. The objective of this paper was to investigate households’ willingness to pay (WTP) toward the conservation of natural vegetation through the contingent valuation method in district Ziarat and to examine contributing factors affecting WTP. Demand for conservation strategies decreases as payment bids increases. This study used the binary logistic model for estimation by using SPSS software. The results showed that willingness to pay was positively affected by education, urbanization, participation, livestock, visitors and environmental awareness, whereas land size has a negative effect on willingness to pay. The average WTP is Rs 263 ($1.65) per month per household. Total Rs 69640 ($437.98) per month can be collected for the conservation of natural vegetation in district Ziarat.
Keywords
Vegetation, Conservation, Willingness to pay, Contingent valuation method, District Ziarat
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