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Abstract

Both rural and urban respondents indicated the importance and value of the MRBF.
The reasons why the MRBF might be of value are to help reduce the climate change,
education and science, as a place for people to live, and to protect water catchment.
The important issues facing the MRBF were identified as forest clearing for stock
grazing and forest clearing for timber, fishing, recreation and tourism, and clearing so
people can live in the forest. The main forest products that rural people collected from
the MRBF are for consumption in the household and include bamboo shoots, fish,
and edible mushrooms. For extra income products are bamboo shoots, edible
mushrooms, and fish.
The number of respondents who agree to pay was 45% while 55% disagree with
supporting conservation and rehabilitation activities in the MRBF. The most common
reasons offered to those who were not willing to pay were that the RFD should be
responsible for fixing the problem, followed by the public already pay taxes so that
the government should fix the problem. Logistic regression was used to develop a
model of respondent's willingness to pay (WTP) and identify significant variables
which influence their willingness to pay. Two independent variables found to be
significant -the value of the forest for proving a place for people to live and for
recreation and tourism. The mean WTP for urban respondents was 29 baht and
median was 27 baht. There were insufficient responses from rural respondents to
estimate WTP. For the combined sample of rural and urban respondents, the mean
and median WTP were 26 baht and 23 baht respectively. Aggregating these results
across the population as a whole yielded a mean WTP of approximately 2.8 million
baht and a median of approximately 2.5 million baht.
The best approach to collecting, managing and allocating this WTP were explored. It
is recommended that a special trust fund be set up, to be managed by a board
comprising local urban and rural representatives, as well as the Royal Forest
Department. Funds would be disbursed by the board to support activities concerning
conservation and rehabilitation of the MRBF.

Item Type:	Thesis - Coursework Master
Authors/Creators:	Apipoonyanon, C
Item Statistics:	View statistics for this item

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