Study On Natural Resources Recreation Valuation Using Benefit Transfer Method

The reasonable protection and effective utilization of natural resources cannot be achieved without economic valuation. From the1980s, along with consistently increasing demand of natural resources and valuation, foreign economists not only widely apply methodologies such as travel cost method and contingent valuation method to measure monetized values of natural resources, but also find a more convenient and economical natural resources valuation method-benefit transfer method, which has been widely applied in cost-benefit analysis and natural resources loss evaluation in public programs of many developed countries such as the US. Nowadays, China is still lack of research quantity and quality of natural resources recreation valuation by comparing with other developed countries. A systematic research and application of benefit transfer method is also rare in China. Since the limited quantity and quality of available researches of natural resources valuations, it has very important practical significance to establish a standardized benefit transfer model which can reflect China’s current situation and to solve a series of techniques and methods of the efficiency and reliability of China’s natural resources recreation benefit transfer models. Meanwhile, through the concrete application research of benefit transfer method, the paper finds the limiting factors in China and data differences between China and developed countries, gradually forms the methods for recreation value transfer system with China’s characteristics, and enriches and perfects the theory of natural resources value evaluation. Therefore, the theoretical sense of the paper can not be overlooked.The beginning of this research is based on a systematical summary of both domestic and international core studies on non-market resources valuation theories and methods, and established a theoretical framework and methodological system of benefit transfer in terms of basic concepts and theories, principles and methods, procedures and processes etc. It also includes some deep analysis and discussion on the connotation of benefits transfer efficiency and reliability, statistical validity testing methods. In order to provide theoretical and technical support while using benefit transfer method in an effective way, the research analyzed the elements and impact factors which have significant impacts on the statistical validity of meta-analysis benefit transfer model by establishing a regression model between transfer error and impact factors. Then, the research systematically analyzes the empirical data limitation of China’s natural resources recreation valuation, and discovers specific barriers while using benefit transfer method by establishing meta-regression model and analyzing the statistical test results. Thus, it proposes a method to improve the benefit transfer consequence while using meta-regression model. In addition, the research studies how to utilize the results of recreation valuation in developed countries to establish a standard meta-regression benefit transfer model. This model has to be general and complied with China’s actual situation in natural recreation valuation. The research also finds particularity and complexity while natural resource benefits are transferred from developed countries to China as well as the impact of domestic and international data differences on model establishment and transfer efficiency. Through a targeted screening of international study sites research sampling, quality control of domestic policy sites samples as well as the adjustment and unification of different sample variables have been achieved. It effectively reduces meta-regression benefit transfer error. The lowest out-of-sample benefit transfer error of international models is18.74%. By comparing with average transfer errors based on China’s empirical study data, it is reduced by65%. Also, transfer error of natural resources recreation value reduces from a range27.47%-50.66%to0.35%-17.94%. Meta-regression benefit transfer models are used to predict daily average consumer surplus of4types of natural resources and10types of recreation activities in China. These predicted values can be used as reference standard in natural recreation value estimation. At the end of the research, it concludes experiences of improving the validity and reliability of China’s natural resources recreation benefits transfer models and gives some recommendations of how to promote a wide range of scientific applications of benefit transfer method.