AN APPLICATION OF ECONOMIC CHOICE EXPERIMENTS TO A TRADITIONAL LAND-USE - DEER HUNTING AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

Stalking (deer hunting) is an important land use and activity in the S cottish Highlands, and deer managers have traditionally maintained lar ge numbers of female deer in order to supply a guaranteed number of st ags for stalking. Unfortunately, grazing by large numbers of deer conf licts with environmental objectives that are seeking to improve upland habitats and increase the area of native Caledonian Pine forest. This study uses a multi-attribute choice experimental approach to quantify the various characteristics of the stalking experience to determine t he value that amateur stalkers attach to the stag numbers, the landsca pe and other attibutes. Unlike previous applications of stated prefere nce, a large proportion (one-third) of a full factorial design is used to present stalkers with different alternative stalking packages with in a postal survey The results indicate a way forward that could be ag reeable to both deer managers and conservationists. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.