Estimating the native residents in Fars province for willingness to pay to protect of Pleske's Ground Jay (Podoces pleskei, Zarudny, 1896), as an endemic species

The aim of this study is to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) of native residents in Fars province for the protection of Pleske’s Ground Jay(Podoces pleskei, Zarudny, 1896), as an Iranian endemic species. In this study, 100 people from Neyriz city in Fars province were near the Bahram-e-Gur protect are as a one habitat of Pleske’s Ground Jay, chosen via the simple random sampling and interviews face to face. A questionnaire comprising items about the people’s demographics as well as their awareness and willingness to pay for protection of Pleske’s Ground Jay. Subsequently, analysis of gathering data was carried out with applying a Logit model under maximum likelihood procedure by using SPSS (version 21) and Eviews (8) Software. Result showed that, 55 percent of the cases had positive willingness to pay for protection of Pleske’s Ground Jay endemic species. The average payment of WTP for the monthly and annual protection value of Pleske’s Ground Jay endemic species was estimated 28714.14 RLs (0.94 $) and 344569.74 RLs (11.3 $) respectively. Furthermore, the result showed that the age, literacy level, job, membership in environmental organization and bid have statistical significant effects on willingness to pay for Pleske’s Ground Jay endemic species protection.