Valuing Environmental Services Using Contingent Valuation Method

This paper presents the results of two studies in Lao PDR that assessed people's willingness to pay (WTP) using the Contingent Valuation Methodology (CVM). The first study investigated the WTP of residents for the sustainable development and maintenance of urban parks in the city using Saysetha Park as the case study. In this study residents expressed that urban parks are very important to them as they are areas for relaxation and areas to conserve urban biodiversity. The WTP survey revealed that the residents' mean WTP is 10,741kip/month/household. With this amount, it was estimated that a monthly water bill surcharge of 3,000/kip/month/household may be recommended to maintain urban parks. The second study assessed the WTP for biodiversity conservation and sustainability in the Houay Nhang Protected Area. Using CVM, the WTP responses showed that the monthly contribution that would be acceptable to the people is 5,000 kip. The logit regression shows that this WTP value is influenced by bid prices, gender, and educational levels. The respondents recognized the importance of the protected area for environmental and biodiversity protection.