Estimating the preservation value of Taleghan Lake’s ecosystem and distinguishing between use and non-use value

摘要

Regarding the importance of natural resources in preserving natural ecosystem and human being survival, protecting these resources and preventing their demolition will be necessary. Since Taleghan Lake, located in Iran, is the habitat for plants and animals the present study determined the preservation value of this lake and estimated the willingness to pay of people (WTP) for this, using the contingent valuation method (CVM). Also, hierarchical analysis method was used to determine the shares of use and non-use values in the whole economic value. Results from logit model showed that the maximum willingness to pay amounting to 41400 rials for each person per month. On the basis of AHP approach 3150 rials and 10350 rials out of 41400 rials have been estimated as use and non-use value, respectively for each person per month. Also in the second method, willingness to pay using the open-ended method has been determined as 58390 rials for each person per month from which 43792.5 rials and 14597.5 rials have been related to used and non-used values of the lake, respectively. Results from the two models for distinguishing between the use and non-use values are indicatives of allocating more amounts for use value compared with non-use value. This can be led to depletion of natural and environmental resources of the lake.