Contingent Valuations of Indigenous Timber Tree Resources: The Case of Cheha District, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a variety of indigenous trees. Although indigenous timber tree resources have indispensible benefits for environmental balance and economic development, these trees are prone to extinction and degradation by the local peoples for different purposes in Cheha district. The main purpose of this research was to examine the values of commercial and non-commercial uses of indigenous timber tree resources. This study employed contingent valuation methods to elicit the household’s willingness to pay for plantation of indigenous trees in Chehadistrict. Mostly primary data was used from a survey of 243 sample households. The study results revealed that mean WTP for the future plantation of indigenous timber tree resources from the double bounded dichotomous format of Seemingly Unrelated Bivariate Probit model was in the range of ETB 41.93827 to ETB 46.24 per person. The study result also revealed that total income of the household, sex of the respondent and training about forest conservation and protection had positive and significant effect on WTP for proposed plantation project. On the other hand, bid amount and distance of households home from the plantation project had negative and significant effects on WTP. Hence, urgent action and involvement of government and local cummunity should be necessary to protect and conserve endangered indigenous timber trees. Keywords: Economic valuation, Indigenous timber trees, Seemingly Unrelated Bivariate Probit, Cheha, Ethiopi