Estimation of People's Willingness to Pay for Conservation of Rare and Threatened Species of Cheetah in Iran.

Cheetah is one of the threatened species of wildlife of Iran, and Bafgh is one of the most important habitats of cheetah. In this study, cheetah’s conservation value in Bafgh zone and effective factors on people willingness to pay has been estimated. On the bases of stochastic sampling method, 290 questionnaires were gathered from Bafgh zone. Results show that 227 people in Bafgh have willingness to pay for preservation of cheetah. In attention to these results with increasing one percent in Bid variable, acceptation probability would decrease to 0.3044 percent. Monthly, willingness to pay for conservation of cheetah in Bafgh zone is estimated about 23$ per family. Generally, annual conservation value for Cheetah in Iran are estimated about 5$ billion. Most important and effective variables for conservation of Cheetah are Bid, income level, education, genus and type of jobs. With attention to these results, suitable policy making could determined.