Determinants of Public Forest Management Decisions:The Calares Delmundo and Sima Natural Park (SPAIN)

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering.Universityof Castile-La Mancha.Campus Universitario s/n, 02071 Albacete, Spain

Abstract

Public authorities should assess what recreational services can be offered citizens visitinga
protected natural area. Therefore, the characterisation of visitors as well as the economic valuation of a
park’srecreational use would allow the proposal of management strategies to satisfy visitors. For this purpose,
410 surveys were taken of visitors to the CalaresdelMundoandSimaNatural Park (Spain). The results showed
two segments of visitors. The first segment is better informed about topics related to the environment and has
a higher educational level and higher monthly family income. However, they are willing to pay less to enter the
park (3.70€). Meanwhile the visitors from the second segment are more conscientious about environmental
problems andare familiar with other natural areas.They are willing to pay more for park entrance (4.61€), even
though they have lower incomes, because they value the scenic beauty of the park and particularly, the
singularity of the waterfall and the source of the Mundo River.

Keywords

International Journal of Environmental Research
Volume 8, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
October 2014
Pages 1341-1348

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