Authors

• Habibollah Salami
• Hamed Rafiee

Abstract

Because of national and international importance of the Anzali international wetland, this study attempts to determine the preservation value and estimate willingness to pay (WTP) by Iranian Households for preserving this wetland, using contingent valuation method. A logit model was employed with maximum likelihood estimation procedure. Results showed, education level of householder, informative knowledge of households, importance of environment, gender, urbanization, number of visits and ethical attitudes are factors that affecting willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland preservation. Based on the estimated parameters, the monthly WTP of the deontologist and consequentialist households are estimated to be 18811.87 and 14219.06 Rials, respectively. In addition, results indicate that while the level of WTP increases, the difference between WTP of these two households groups also increase. Moreover, the annual preservation value per hectare of the wetland is estimated to be 17267.77 and 13051.95 Rials, for the two groups of Iranian households respectively.

Keywords

• Anzali International Wetland
• contingent valuation
• Cosequentialists
• Deontologist
• Preservation Value
• Willingness to Pay