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Rain Forest Ecotourism: Valuing the Benefits of Creating a New National Park in Madagascar

Investigators:

Evan Mercer, Southern Research Station
Randall Kramer, Duke University
Narendra Sharma, World Bank

Description:

Travel cost and contingent valuation methods are applied to the problem of estimating the potential consumer surplus available to international nature tourists from a rain forest conservation project in Madagascar. Data are derived from surveys of nature tourists in Madagascar and international nature tourism, travel industry professionals in the U.S. and Europe. Typical trip travel cost models are used to estimate changes in nature tourists' consumer surplus when a new national park is developed for nature tourism. The results are compared with contingent valuation analysis of the willingness-to-pay of nature tourists to include the new national park in their current trip to Madagascar.

Problem Area(s): Tropical forestry
Status: Completed

Products:

Mercer, E.; Kramer, R.; Sharma, N. 1995. Rain forest tourism: estimating the benefits of tourism development in a new national park in Madagascar. Journal of Forest Economics. 1(2):239-269.

Kramer, Randall; Munasinghe, Mohan; Sharma, Narendra; Mercer, Evan; Shyamsundar, Priya. 1994. Valuing a protected tropical forest: a case study in Madagascar. In: Munasinghe, Mohan; McNelly, Jeffrey, comps., eds. Protected area economies and policy: linking conservation and sustainable development. Washington, DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank: 191-203.

Mercer, Evan; Kramer, Randall; Sharma, Narendra. 1995. Impacts on tourism. In: Valuing tropical forests: methodology and case study of Madagascar. World Bank environment paper 13. Washington, DC: The World Bank: 33-41.

Mercer, Evan; Kramer, Randall; Sharma, Narendra. 1993. Estimating the nature tourism benefits of establishing the Mantadia National Park in Madagascar. Duke University, Durham, NC: Center for Resource and Environmental Policy Research Working Paper. 66 p.

modified: 13-MAR-2000
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