ECONOMIC VALUE OF KADUGANNAWA SCENIC VIEW A CONTINGENT VALUATION.APPROACH

Rapid degradation of natural habitats due to direct exploitation and conversion into other landuses is a major problem faced by Sri Lanka. Many natural habitats have been converted tosettlement schemes, highways. hydropower projects and hotel complexes. The negligence andunderestimation of various values in particular, conservation values of natural habitats have beenidentified as the major reason for this problem.In order to overcome this problem. an economic evaluation has been carried out for the scenicview of Kadugannawa. The main objective was to calculate the use and non-use values for thescenic view.A Contingent valuation survey was carried out to estimate willingness to pay for use and nonusebenefits of the scenic view using two samples of people in Pahala Kadugannawa of Kegalledistrict (on site) and Colombo district (offsite) of Sri Lanka.The resultant willingness to pay (WTP) estimates were consistent with the theory. The meanWTP values for use values of on site and off site were Rs. 441.40 and Rs. 236.10 respectively.Furthermore, onsite and off site mean bequest values were Rs. 440.20 and Rs. 268.50respectively.These use and non-use values would be important in decisions on the land use changes in thearea. However, further studies would be necessary to estimate the total value of the site.