Contingent Valuation Study of Biodiversity in Southern Part of Lao PDR

Abstract

As a least developed country, the economy of Lao PDR has an agricultural base with a high percentage of poor people living in rural areas. In order to gain a better understanding of the importance of local and regional areas of forest to communities living in or near the Biodiversity Conservation Corridor (BCC) in southern part of Lao PDR. With the objective to estimate the value of biodiversity was used by households based on market price and estimate the willingness to pay for protecting forest and biodiversity for their survival and livelihood and to identify the factors affecting willingness to pay for protecting forest and biodiversity for their survival and livelihood. Using CVM to estimate the measured value of forest and biodiversity in 15 villages from 5 districts of 3 provinces, in southern of Laos. The result shows that value of timber amount of 3,893,671,000 kip (USD 487,928.70) per year and the total value of NTFPs were collected by villagers in term of market price is 1,644,521,000 kip (USD 206,080.33) per household per year. For the mean WTP of policy for protecting forest and biodiversity only in nearly their village area was 91,023 kip (USD 11.41) per household per month an average of 7.25 percent of household monthly income. The WTP of policy 2 was higher than mean WTP of policy 1 in amount 111,087 kip (USD 13.92) per household per month an average 8.41 percent of average household monthly income. Factors affecting willingness to pay for protecting the forest with negative impact is gender and occupation but the education level and households size is positive impact.