Estimation of Anglers Willingness ‎to Pay for Conservation of The ‎Endangered Caspian Brown ‎Trout (Salmo caspius, K. 1877)‎

The economic value of the sport fishing valuable species such as Caspian brown trout (Salmo caspius, Kessler, 1877), is estimated based on the determination of the amount of money that fishermen tends to pay for fish catching. The aim of this research was to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of anglers to the conservation of the endangered Caspian brown trout, in order to determine the conservation value of Caspian brown trout. In order to do this research, from 2018 to 2020, 444 anglers were selected by random sampling method. Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire comprising items about the angling demographic characteristics as well as their WTP for the protection of the endangered species of Caspian trout. Eventually, analysis of gathering data was carried out with applying a Logit model under maximum likelihood procedure by using SPSS (version 21) and Eviews (10) Software. The result showed that 75 percent of the anglers had a positive WTP for the protection of the endangered species of Caspian trout. The average payment of WTP for the monthly and annual protection value of Caspian trout was estimated 1979.2 and 23750.4 million RLs respectively, which is much higher than that of the penalty for illegal fishing (120.5 million RLs). According to the results of this research, the variables of the literacy level, income, job, membership in the environmental organization, species recognition and bid have positive effects on the WTP for the protection of endangered species of Caspian trout.