School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Chr. Magnus Falsens v. 30, 1433 Ås, Norway; Research Department, Statistics Norway, Akersveien 26, 0177 Oslo, Norway.
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2500 Campus Rd, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Jun;360:121081. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121081. Epub 2024 May 11.
A more comprehensive understanding of how recreational values and forest visitation rates vary across different activities enables forest managers to tailor conservation and management strategies to align with preferences among visitors, ensuring more effective allocation of budgetary resources. However, current research often focuses on only a few recreational activities, resulting in limited insights for forest managers. This study aims to expand the nature-based activities considered so that management can better serve the broader public. We conduct a travel cost analysis using a large survey-based dataset to estimate the value of nature-based recreation in national forests in the Sierra Nevada region and assess how these values differ across main activities. We categorize recreational activities into five broad groups (Passive, Active, Camping, Winter, and Other) to offer a comprehensive view of recreational preferences. A truncated negative binomial regression accounting for endogenous stratification is used to analyze the relationship between the number of trips to the forests, travel cost, activity categories, and socio-demographic variables. Our results suggest a mean consumer surplus (CS) of $65 per visit per person to national forests in the Sierra Nevada. Aggregated over annual per person visits, the total CS is approximately $313.3 million per year. Our findings reveal variations in CS across activity groups, with winter activities (e.g., skiing, snowboarding) and active activities (e.g., hiking, fishing) attracting the highest number of visits, and the highest total CS. Our results provide valuable insights for national forest managers, facilitating the strategic allocation of limited resources to recreational activities that maximize societal welfare.
更全面地了解休闲价值和森林游客访问率如何因不同的活动而变化，可以使森林管理者根据游客的偏好来调整保护和管理策略，确保更有效地分配预算资源。然而，当前的研究通常只关注少数几种休闲活动，导致森林管理者的洞察力有限。本研究旨在扩大所考虑的自然基础活动，以便管理部门更好地为更广泛的公众服务。我们使用大型基于调查的数据集进行旅行成本分析，以估算内华达山脉地区国家森林的自然基础娱乐价值，并评估这些价值在主要活动之间的差异。我们将娱乐活动分为五类（被动、主动、露营、冬季和其他），以全面了解娱乐偏好。使用考虑内生分层的截断负二项回归来分析到森林的旅行次数、旅行成本、活动类别和社会人口变量之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，内华达山脉地区国家森林每人每次访问的平均消费者剩余（CS）为 65 美元。每年每人的总 CS 约为 3.133 亿美元。我们的研究结果表明，CS 在活动组之间存在差异，冬季活动（如滑雪、单板滑雪）和主动活动（如徒步旅行、钓鱼）吸引了最多的游客，总 CS 也最高。我们的研究结果为国家森林管理者提供了有价值的见解，有助于将有限的资源战略性地分配到能使社会效益最大化的娱乐活动中。
