Analysing conflict between cultural heritage and nature conservation in the Australian Alps: A CVM approach

The contingent valuation method (CVM) can be useful for assessing the nonmarket economic values associated with government land use decisions. A particular variant of CVM, which is based on dichotomous choice responses, has become widely used. Previous studies have employed a variety of techniques for analysing dichotomous choice CVM data to produce estimates of economic welfare changes. This paper summarizes these analytical options, and illustrates their application in a case study concerning cattle grazing on the Bogong High Plains in the Australian Alps. This case study is one of the few to assess the nonmarket economic value of cultural heritage conservation using contingent valuation, and is also unusual in that the competing values are both nonmarket in character. Nature conservation and heritage values were separately measured using two independent surveys. Mean willingness to pay for nature conservation and cultural heritage were estimated using a range of parametric and nonparametric methods.