Public Willingness to Pay for Ecosystem Service Functions of a Peri-urban Forest In Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The willingness to pay (WTP) format contingent valuation method (CVM) was adopted to elicit monetary values from some respondents in Arakanga forest reserve (AFR) (a peri- urban forest) in Abeokuta. This was to provide monetary estimates of the ecosystem service functions of the reserve. The respondents were randomly selected from both the neighbours and non- neighbours of the reserve. Data were collected with the aid of structured and pre- tested questionnaire administered interpersonally to the respondents. The questionnaire were 200 in number i.e 100 administered to each category of respondents. A total of 92 respondents (46%) were willing to pay money ranging from N100 to N1, 000 monthly. The modal value was N100 with the highest percentage of response (56.5%). An individual mean monthly WTP of N165.22 was recorded in the entire study area. This resulted into an aggregate of N15, 301,245.59 and N33, 263,577.38 minimum and maximum values respectively. These amounts represented the monthly monetary values of the ecosystem services functions of AFR .Income and household sizes are some of the socio-economic factors by which the monetary values of ecosystem services of AFR can be predicted as revealed by the multiple regression analysis. It can be concluded from this study that the respondents valued the reserve so highly to the extent that they are willing to contribute a part of their income to ensure the continued existence of the reserve.