IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/snd/wpaper/52.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

To Develop or to Conserve? The Case of the Diyawanna Oya Wetlands in Sri Lanka

Author

Listed:
  • Thusita Dilhani Marawila
  • Manoj Thibotuwawa

Abstract

The Diyawanna Oya wetland ecosystem has proven to be an important recreational site in the greater Colombo area in the face of the growing demand for urban recreational amenities. It provides a wide spectrum of use- and non-use benefits, including production, hydrological, and ecological values. However, the wetland suffers from both inadequate recognition of these benefits and poor representation in the national protected area network. This study evaluates the recreation related social welfare benefits that visitors derive from the Diyawanna Oya wetlands. The study employs the Individual Travel Cost Method in order to estimate the welfare gains from recreation as well as changes in consumer surplus if authorities were to convert parts of the wetland to other development uses. The study also assesses the present value of non-market benefits from preserving the site. The findings indicate that the Diyawanna Oya wetlands generate an annual consumer surplus of LKR 3,890 million (or USD 35 million) to people who use the area for recreation. The welfare loss from converting the natural wetland area to development projects is LKR.19.45 million (or USD 173,107) per hectare. Our study also shows that imposing an entry fee (the equivalent of LKR.50) will increase government revenue by LKR 5.4 million (or USD 48,055).

Suggested Citation

  • Thusita Dilhani Marawila & Manoj Thibotuwawa, "undated". "To Develop or to Conserve? The Case of the Diyawanna Oya Wetlands in Sri Lanka," Working papers 52, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:snd:wpaper:52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sandeeonline.org/uploads/documents/publication/890_PUB_Working_Paper_52_Dilhani_Manoj.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elinor Ostrom, 2000. "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 137-158, Summer.
    2. Jeff Dayton-Johnson & Pranab Bardhan, 2002. "Inequality And Conservation On The Local Commons: A Theoretical Exercise," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(481), pages 577-602, July.
    3. repec:ucp:ecdecc:v:48:y:2000:i:4:p:847-65 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pilar Useche, 2016. "Who Contributes to the Provision of Public Goods at the Community Level? The Case of Potable Water in Ghana," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(6), pages 869-888, November.
    2. Mason, Charles F. & Polasky, Stephen & Tarui, Nori, 2017. "Cooperation on climate-change mitigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 43-55.
    3. Nicolas Faysse, 2005. "Coping With The Tragedy Of The Commons: Game Structure And Design Of Rules," Post-Print cirad-01002167, HAL.
    4. Cardenas, Juan-Camilo, 2003. "Real wealth and experimental cooperation: experiments in the field lab," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 263-289, April.
    5. Rucha Ghate, 2008. "Ensuring ‘Collective Action’ in ‘Participatory’ Forest Management," Working Papers id:1759, eSocialSciences.
    6. Gary D. Libecap, 2013. "Addressing Global Environmental Externalities: Transaction Costs Considerations," NBER Working Papers 19501, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Juan-Camilo Cardenas, 2002. "Real wealth and experimental cooperation: Evidence from field experiments," Artefactual Field Experiments 00019, The Field Experiments Website.
    8. Gary D. Libecap, 2014. "Addressing Global Environmental Externalities: Transaction Costs Considerations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(2), pages 424-479, June.
    9. Taro Takahashi & Takeshi Sato & Hideo Aizaki & Na Guo & Yasuhiro Nakashima & Shigeo Ogawa & Nanae Yamada & Xiaoyun Zheng, 2013. "Three-dimensional spatial correlation," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 163-175, November.
    10. Nicolas Faysse, 2005. "Coping with the Tragedy of the Commons: Game Structure and Design of Rules," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 239-261, April.
    11. Shinji Teraji, 2019. "Identity switching and conservation on the commons," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(2), pages 101-113, June.
    12. Varughese, George & Ostrom, Elinor, 2001. "The Contested Role of Heterogeneity in Collective Action: Some Evidence from Community Forestry in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 747-765, May.
    13. Calzada, Joan & Iranzo, Susana, 2021. "Can communal systems work? The effects of communal water provision on child health in Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    14. Karla Hoff & Mayuresh Kshetramade & Ernst Fehr, 2011. "Caste and Punishment: the Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(556), pages 449-475, November.
    15. Aurora García‐Gallego & Nikolaos Georgantzís, 2009. "Market Effects of Changes in Consumers' Social Responsibility," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 235-262, March.
    16. Dritan Osmani & Richard S.J. Tol, 2008. "Evolution in time of Farsightedly Stable Coalitions: An Application of FUND," Working Papers FNU-162, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised May 2008.
    17. Kerri Brick & Martine Visser & Justine Burns, 2012. "Risk Aversion: Experimental Evidence from South African Fishing Communities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(1), pages 133-152.
    18. Evans, Alecia & Sesmero, Juan, 2022. "Cooperation in Social Dilemmas with Correlated Noisy Payoffs: Theory and Experimental Evidence," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 322804, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Gonzalo Olcina & Vicente Calabuig, 2015. "Coordinated Punishment and the Evolution of Cooperation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(2), pages 147-173, April.
    20. Elisabeth R. Gerber & Clark C. Gibson, 2009. "Balancing Regionalism and Localism: How Institutions and Incentives Shape American Transportation Policy," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 633-648, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:snd:wpaper:52. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anuradhak (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.