Social preferences for the management of the El Chico National Park, through choice experiments

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the economic benefits from the implementation of a management improvement plan in El Chico National Park, as well as to determine the order of preferences of the intervention areas that comprise it. The method of choice experiments was used and a survey of 184 visitors was conducted. The exercise included a test for the detection and correction of inconsistent responses in order to reduce the sources of bias in the estimates. Through the multinomial logit model, it was found that the availability to pay marginal added was $ 25.75 additional pesos (USD $1.35) to the current entrance fee to the park per person. The most valued area of intervention was the regulation of tourism at the permissive level, followed by active biomass management, intensive surveillance and forest health at the active level. It is concluded that visitors to the park obtain a higher level of utility in the face of changes in the regulation and ordering of tourist activities. Likewise, the detection and elimination of inconsistent responses allows greater precision in the estimation of social benefits and keeps the order of preferences of the main attributes selected by the interviewees, which must be assessed by the managers in order to decide their match for the purposes of conservation of the park according to the provisions of the current environmental legislation.