The relative unimportance of nonmarket willingness to pay for timber harvesting

The magnitude of a nonmarket willingness to pay for logging of native forests in southeastern Australia is estimated using the contingent valuation method. This willingness to pay is apparently motivated by both the monetary and social costs of unemployment and a nonmarket intrinsic production value. We speculate that this nonmarket value for production may arise where a traditional land use is involved. Willingness to pay for intrinsic production value is small (4%) in comparison to the nonmarket economic value of reserving the same forests in national parks. Whilst this result may not be transferable to resource allocation issues which involve significant traditional land use, it does suggest that neglect of such a willingness to pay has not significantly prejudiced the results of past benefit cost analyses related to the preservation of natural environments. © 1994.