Valuation of Conservation Commodity of the Sinharaja Forest: Towards Total Economic Value

Conservation of wet zone forest in Sri Lanka is not a debatable point but yet economic justification for such programs are absolutely important. In one hand gradual decrease in forest cover as well as on the other hand limited amount of available recourses for biodiversity conservation put the forest policy makers in a difficult position. This paper examines this problem in the user’s point of view making enable the policy makers to understand their willingness to pay for such efforts. Based on contingent valuation method it is found that average willingness to pay for conservation of Sinharaja forest as Rs.664 per year, per person on average basis. This highlights the importance of conservation of this unique biological reserve