The Economic Valuation of Recreation Services of Environment Resources, Case: Anzali Wetland

The determination of economic value of environment resources has become significantly important in the light of increasing pollution and environmental deterioration that is getting momentum. On this ground, the necessity of gauging the cost of pollution, preparing the so called "green national accounts", introducing new taxes and levies to contain and prevent further destruction of the environment, has received especial attentions.The very objective of this paper is to determine the recreation value of Anzali Wetland for which the travel cost approach based on household production function has been employed. Generally two approaches are employed in regard to wetland recreation valuation. One is based on demand for travel which takes into account the willingness of individuals to pay for travel expenses. And the second one is based on recreation production function and marginal cost of each travel, taking into account the shadow price of recreation. The present paper has utilized the second approach for the valuation of wetland recreation services introduced by Doctor Pajooyan.J (1987). This approach has benefited from Gary Beaker household production function. The result of this study indicates that distance and travel expenses have significant effects on the provision of recreation services. Under competitive condition, marginal cost of recreation is estimated to amount to Rls, 1100000 per day which is take to be the shadow price of recreation. The result also indicates that the recreation demand has a negative relation with the shadow price of recreation and the relation is positive with respect to income of the consumers and this is in line with the theoretical foundation. Moreover, traveler's willingness to pay has a positive relation with income, marital status, level of education, and travel interest, but with respect to quality of wetland, this relation is negative.