Valuing the recreational benefits from the creation of nature reserves in Irish forests

Data from a large-scale contingent valuation study are used to investigate the effects of forest attributes on willingness to pay for forest recreatio n in Ireland. In particular, the presence of a nature reserve in the forest is found to significantly increase the visitors' willingness to pay. A ran dom utility model is used to estimate the welfare change associated with th e creation of nature reserves in all the Irish forests currently without on e. The yearly impact on visitors' economic welfare of new nature reserves a pproaches half a million pounds per annum, exclusive of non-recreational va lues. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.