Recreational And Cultural Value Evaluation Of Cranes In The Zhalong National Nature Reserve

In recent years, with the further study of ecosystem service, the value assessment of ecosystem service is becoming more and more important. Ecosystem service and how to assess their economic value have become the researching hot spots in the fields of ecology and ecological economics. As an important component of ecosystem, wildlife resources play an important role not only on equilibrium, stability and intact of ecosystem, but also on sustainable development of humanity society and economic.This paper take the crane of Zhalong National Nature Reserve as study subject, it evaluates the recreational and cultural value of crane in Zhalong National Nature Reserve by means of Travel Cost Method (TCM) and Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The authors developed a questionnaire and give it to the tourists who visit Zhalong, with interviewing the tourists in the investigated area, a series of information on the traveling cost, traveling time and willingness to pay of the tourists was attained. With aid of SPSS software, a regression model of person-time and travel cost was established and tested based on the data collected. The total recreational and cultural value of crane is RMB23.94×10~8 and RMB18.58×10~8 separately. This result indicates as the important cultural birds in the world, crane has enormous recreational and cultural value. At the same time, crane also has profound meaning on enriching the modern life of humanity and spiritual culture. This result can be of some interest to both policy-making and compensating of Zhalong. It is of importance for utilizing and conserving the resources so as to achieve sustainable development. At the same time, this study is also of some reference to local authority for economical policy-making and development.