Economic Value of Conservation Pastureland in Southern Iran

The present study aims to estimate the conservation value of pastureland in Fars Province, southern Iran. For this purpose, the CVM method was applied to data collected from a sample of 200 pasture users randomly selected in the region and individualsʹ willingness to pay for using pastureland and conservation areas was calculated. The average willingness to pay by individuals and families were 6357.7 rial and 609.6 rial, respectively. Although Iran is a developing country and people have low to moderate annual income, the result of the study shows that 80.5% of the respondents are willing to pay for conservation the pastureland. Also the result shows that local farmers and ranchers are willing to pay more. The result of the study shows that local people are aware of the importance of this area and willing to do enough to protect it. JEL classification: Q25,Q51