Assessing the economic value of protecting lakes in Bishoftu town: the case of lake Babogaya and lake Kuriftu
Creators: name: Abebe, Nigiste
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2015

description: This research paper has been conducted on the topics assessing the economic value of lake protection in Bishoftu in the case of lake Babogaya and lake Kuriftu. Protecting lake ecosystem is crucial not only to protect this country's public and economic health, but also to preserve and to restore the natural environment for all aquatic and terrestrial living things. Now days, these lakes are encountered different problems. However, no project plan has been planed and implemented to protect the lakes. This leads the researcher to conduct a research on this issue. The main object of the study is assessing the communities' and visitors' willingness to pay for the two lakes protection. A CVM was applied using biding game elicitation format with a single bound dichotomous choice question followed by open ended follow up question and face-to-face interview were undertaken on a sample of 406 respondents. In the study both descriptive and econometrics analysis are employed. The descriptive analysis to the sustainability of lakes shows that, from residents, 74% of Babogaya and 84% of Kuriftu respondent said it will be difficult for the lakes to sustain without any protection. For this, 55.33% of lake Babogaya and 68.93% of lake Kuriftu visitors said it is difficult to sustain the lakes without any protection program. From this, one can conclude that it is better to propose new lake protection plan. Probit and Tobit model were used to determine the factors that influence the WTP and to identify the basic determinants of maximum WTP respectively. The result from the Probit model revealed that the total cost for visitor, perception for substitution and degree level of education are strongly significant to Kuriftu visitors whereas income and distance are strongly significant to Babogaya visitors. In the Tobit model, number of trip and perception for substitution are strongly significant for the result of lake Kuriftu whereas initial bid and degree level of education strongly significant for the result of lake Babogaya visitors. Similarly, the probit model result for residents show that sex and perception for substitution are strongly significant to lake Kuriftu while perception for substitution and house hold members who has a job are strongly significant for lake Babogaya. The result of Tobit model shows that income and perception or substitution for lake Kuriftu and income of the respondent of lake Babogaya are strongly significant. As the result of the study shows, there are different socio-economic variable that affect the proposed lake protection plan. So, the integrated committee (party) should consider these variables when they design the project. In addition, a result of the study shows visitors are part of the lake protection plan and they are willing to pay for iv | P a g e the lakes protection plan in addition to the entrance fee. Therefore, with the collaboration of recreational site owner and government are responsible body to adjust away to collect the money.