Abstract

MONROY HERNANDEZ, Rubén; VALDIVIA ALCALA, Ramón; SANDOVAL VILLA, Manuel  and  RUBINOS PANTA, Juan E.. An Economic Valuation of the Hydrological Environmental Service in a Biosphere Reserve. Terra Latinoam [online]. 2011, vol.29, n.3, pp.315-323. ISSN 2395-8030.

The present research deals with the economic evaluation of the hydrological environmental services (HES) at the Barranca de Metztitlan Biosphere Reserve (BMBR). The BMBR is located in the state of Hidalgo and was decreed as a natural protected area with the category of Biosphere Reserve on November 27, 2000. An existing problem here is that users of the HES are not paying for the re-charging of the water table, which makes the present evaluation necessary; if the problem is not solved shortly, there will not be enough water to meet the needs of the population. The contingent evaluation method (CEM) was used to learn about the willingness of local residents of the BMBR to pay (WTP) for the HES. A survey was applied to collect data to test a logarithmic model and a linear model. The model which was most suitable was the linear income model. The variables accepted according to the global test of the model were: Wald, Score and Ratio Likelihood, while tests related to the hypothesis were age and the perceived quality of the water service. The willingness to pay for re-charging the water is $5.40 per month per water intake and the annual value for the zone is $116 640.

Keywords : hydrological environmental services; contingent valuation method; linear model of income.