Valuing the Benefits of Recreational Wetland Ecosystem: An Application of Contingent Valuation and Travel Cost Methods: The Case of Boye Recreational Wetland, Jimma Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

The Wetlands provide a multitude of ecosystem service such as recreational opportunities, habitat and biodiversity conservation or regulation of nutrient, livestock fodder production and greenhouse gas fluxes. This study seeks to address the valuing the benefits of recreational wetland ecosystem. The Purposively selected Boye wetland and was employed to take 120 visitors as a sample to assess consumer WTP for the direct use value and 100 non visitors for non-use value. To find the total economic value of the site, contingent valuation and travel cost methods have been used for the non use value and use value part of the wetland, respectively. The survey was conducted to collect information on WTP and the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. Results show that Indicate that knowledge about wetland (NAW) at 1%, income at 5%, and Bid price at 5% and 1% level of significant for the first and second WTP answer were significant variables. While, age and numbers of dependent people in a family (NODP) were not significant. Regarding option value, the future direct and indirect use value, the researcher finds that all respondents were extremely motivated regardless of their response about the bid price. Concerning the stewardship valueTherefore, general consensus that the value of recreational wetland ecosystem services often outweighs economic use and that protecting wetland ecosystem services is one of the most important responsibilities of today’s politicians, resource managers, and the surrounding society. Keywords: contingent valuation method, cluster analysis, Ethiopia, recreational wetland ecosystem, travel cost method, and willingness to pa