Upstream households\u27 willingness to pay (WTP) for forested watershed protection in Langat Basin, Selangor, Malaysia

Forested watershed provides sufficient ecosystem services to water consumers including watershed protection, biodiversity conservation, landscape beauty, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, soil formation and flood regulation. Nevertheless, watershed ecosystem services are not fully captured in current market price and policy decision. The payment for ecosystem services (PES) have attracted increasing awareness as a new market mechanism that convert non-market values of the environment into real financial inducement for sellers to provide watershed management service to buyers. Langat Basin is an important water catchment area providing raw water source and other amenities to approximately 1.2 million people within the basin area. Langat basin is experiencing rapid growth and classified as moderately contaminated. The basin is more likely to be polluted in the future. Upstream households of Langat basin were asked to state their willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving watershed protection service. The willingness to pay by 180 upstream households was RM30 per year and total WTP from the double bounded dichotomies choice was computed at RM5401 per year. Result showed households chose the special fund to channel payment for watershed management