Une approche multi-attributs de la demande de loisirs sur les espaces naturels : l'exemple de la forêt publique

The recreational services provided by the natural environment are highly heterogeneous and most of them are non market. For management purpose however, it is useful to fully appreciate individuals preferences for recreation attributes and provide a monetary value for outdoor recreation. Visitors of forests for instance, desire both natural features and public equipments. In choosing a recreative destination, one may consequently pose questions regarding the relative importance of each of these characteristics. Given the multidimensional character of forest recreation, we have employed the choice experiment as a valuation method. This paper applies the choice experiment to public forest in the Gironde area in the southwest of France. A survey for residents was conducted in the summer of 2006. The originality of the questionnaire design lies in the use of the travel distance as a proxy for the price of scenarios (monetary attribute). Our results show that residents do not attach a significant value to all attributes. The Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) is positive and significant for tidiness and, to a lesser degree, for scenic quality, ranging from ¤1,07 to ¤6,23 (per person per trip) depending on attributes levels. In contrast, the presence of equipments such as picnic tables and cycle lanes, as well as the reduction in congestion, are not statistically significant. Aside from assigning welfare estimates to the characteristics of forest recreation, we demonstrate the interest of using multi-attribute analysis for recreational demand for public forest management practices.