The Evaluation of Forest Cultural Value Based on WTP:A Case Study in Diebu County of Gansu Province in China

Ying Zhang,Xiaohong Zhou

1School of Economics and Management of Beijing Forestry University,Beijing 100083,China

2School of Forestry and Environment Studies of Yale University,New Haven,CT 06520,USA

Keywords Forest cultural value WTP Value evaluation Logistic model Cultural management

Abstract Cultural value is regarded as an important component of forest ecosystem services,which has been received great attention to a certain extent for the relevant research in recent years.In this study,taking Diebu County of Gansu Province in China as an example,the impact factors of Willingness to Pay(WTP)of forest cultural value is analyzed by adopting Logistic Regression Model(LRM)and Contingent Valuation Method(CVM),and the value of forest culture in Diebu County is estimated.The result shows that WTP of forest cultural value in Diebu County is rather low,the percentage of people who are willing to pay only accounts for 35.29%of total survey population.Impact factors of WTP for cultural value mainly contain the education level,professional knowledge,personal income and so on,among which the impact of educational level for WTP is least,and the personal annual income is largest.In addition,the personal annual income is also the most prominent impact factor for not willing to pay for forest cultural value.Mean WTP per capita for forest cultural value of Diebu County is at the range between 18.96 RMB/a and 53.81 RMB/a.The results are calculated according to the population and number of the travelers in 2016.With the evaluation,forest cultural value of Diebu County is about between 8.2741 million RMB and23.4390million RMB in that year.The discussion is also raised according to relevant results in the research.

1 Introduction

Forest culture refers to a cultural phenomenon that takes forest as background or media(Su and Su,2004).It consists of material culture,institutional culture and spiritual culture(Zheng,2001;Liang et al.,2014).Forest culture involves not only forest aesthetics(FAO,2004;Cai,2002;Cardiff,1988),forest management and utilization(Cardiff,2000;Nonaka et al.,2012;Ghosal,2011),forest recreation(Rahman et al.,2014;Mayer,2014;Tyrvainen et al.,2014),but also forest aborigines therapy and so on(Herndon et al.,2009).At the international level,Germany is the first country to start the research of forest culture,which plays an important role in German culture.On the one hand,Germany’s forestry theory and forestry technology research has been at the forefront of the world,and forest aesthetics research is also coming from Germany(Gendek et al.,2012;UNDP,2011).On the other hand,forest plays an indispensable role in the life of the German people,they regarding forest as the place to comfort and cure souls,and to gain the improvement of life style(FAO,2004;Cai,2002).Japan is a developed country of forestry in Asia,in the early stage,a deep study of forest culture was carried out(Cardiff,1988,2000).In Japan,research of forest culture has already been integrated into all aspects of daily life,such as integrated into environmental education,village and town construction,regional development and so on(Nonaka et al.,2012).Forest cultural research in India also has a long history,and shows a great difference in different periods of governance(Ghosal,2011).In China,research of forest culture mainly focuses on cultural connotation(Su and Su,2004),especially in an expressive manner,systematic features and so on(Kong and Li,2005;Dan,2002).The relevant research of forest culture in China in recent years is a tendency to its construction,communication,on traveling,regional features etc.(Chen and Zhang,2013;Chen et al.,2014;Tan et al.,2015;Hu,2014).

As for the value of forest culture,many people have carried out relevant researches.Many people believe that forest cultural value is an important part of forest ecological services,in which are mainly reflected in playing cultural and historical roles,especially in giving to the role of culture and history for local populations and minorities.Their experience of life and the spread of language and script etc.are important components of forest cultural values(Agnoletti and Santoro,2015).In addition,the cultural value of the forest is also reflected in the landscape features.According to research by Vlami et al.,cultural values are mainly the protection values of animal and plant habitat types,which accounts for about 67%of protected areas of Greece(Vlami et al.,2017).In the U.S.,forest cultural value is often described as preferences for justice,education,freedom,and spirituality,etc.(Sills et al.,2017).Therefore,the understanding and interpretation of forest cultural value are diverse,it derived norms,beliefs,and values help drive protection for forested landscapes and forest-based benefits etc.(Sills et al.,2017).

In general,forest cultural value is regarded as the important component of forest ecosystem services in view of the relevant researches,and some researchers also pay great attention to it.However,there are not many researches on evaluation of forest culture in China,especially research one valuation through Contingent Valuation Method(CVM)is rather rare(Carson,2012).Forest culture has externality and has the properties of public goods,of which the value cannot be directly reflected in the market.Therefore,we through a case study in Diebu county of Gansu province in China to analyze the impacting factors of forest cultural value by adopting CVM,and the Logistic Regression Model(LRM),so as to evaluate its values and provide some references for the conservation and management of forest ecosystem services,as well as to improve the management level of forest resources.

2 Data and methods

Diebu County was named as“Diezhou”in ancient time,subordinated to Zang Nationality Autonomous District of South Gansu Province,located at the eastern border of Qingzang Plateau,situating at the adjacent place of Gansu Province and Sichuan Province at the upper reach of Bailong River,often dubbed with beautiful name as “city of forest”in South Gansu Province.The total area of administrative district is 5,018.3 km2,and forest coverage rate reaches 64.51%,vegetation coverage rate is 87%,with 1671 species of high-class plants,183 species of rare wild life,such as panda,etc.,over 130 kinds of edible wild life fungi,and 127 kinds medicine plants,which is the gene bank of about dozens of rare plants such as cuckoo in South Gansu Province,the important green ecological protective screen of the East of Qingzang Plateau,and also the important water resource conservation place in the upper reach of the Yangtze River.

Diebu County is the earliest Zang Nationality Region in China,of which religion and culture and so on have significant influence on local forest culture,and it also has very high popularity in the world.In particular,indigenous religious beliefs and cultural practices,as well as the worship of trees,have played an important role in the protection of forests.In November 1928,“National Geography”of the USA had a complete report for the folk custom and natural scenery of Zhuoni in Diebu County with 46 pages and 49 photographs.Its special geographical location and cultural circumstance makes forest cultural contents of that county rich and colorful.However,forest cultural resource conservation is weak owing to relatively undeveloped economic development level.Therefore,it urgently needs the research of conducting forest cultural resource conservation.

2.1 Data sources

This research mainly obtains relevant data through a questionnaire survey.The questionnaire is divided into four components:individual feature,economic income situation,recognition of forest culture conservation and WTP of forest cultural value.The questionnaire includes 20 questions,and the closed topics are used in the design of the questionnaire.All questions arise in the form of selection.A brief description of each interviewee was given before the questionnaire was done.In order to improve the response rate,the questionnaire survey was conducted on a one-to-one interview.The survey time of the questionnaire is between August and September 2016,and the number of questionnaires during the survey period is 200,with 186 copies of the questionnaire response,in which 170 questionnaires are effective,the response rate of the questionnaire is 85%.

In addition,the survey is conducted through stratified sampling and random sampling for the research,aiming 12 villages and towns of the entire county,sampling mainly from Dianga Town(capital town of Diebu),Yiwa Village and Lazikou Village.As for the survey sites,it is mainly considered about population distribution,forest resource,industrial development,tourism,cultural conservation,and so on.Number of sampling is obtained through calculation by Scheaffer sampling formula(1).With assuming the error rate of sampling of people at 8%(mean of 5%-10%),the minimum number of random sampling should be 158 at least.The sample distribution is shown in Table 1.

Where n is the number of samples.N is the total number of samples.g is the sampling error.

2.2 Research methods

LRM and the CVM are adopted for the research.The LRM is as follows:

In which,p is the probability of dependent variable y=1,x1,x2,...,xnare independent variables,n is the number of variables.To analyze the influence factors of WTP for forest cultural value,such as to be willing to pay or not willing to pay this is a typical categorical variable,and the LRM is very suitable for analyzing this kind of issue.

CVM is suitable for evaluation of the values of things that do not have market transactions.Usually,the questionnaires are used to investigate consumers’willingness to pay(WTP)and no-willingness to pay(NWTP)to show the economic value of things.Currently,there are two ways to estimate the value:The first is the Mean WTP(MWTP)method.That is by estimating general mean WTP through a sample survey.Another method is the Rate of WTP(RWTP),namely,through estimating general Mean WTP by multiplying the positive RWTP(the rate of the sum of above mean or median to WTP)to estimate the mean of total WTP(Xu et al.,2007).

(1)The formula of MWTP is:

In which,AWPiis the ithlevel of WTP,niis the sample number of AWPi,N is the total number of samples.

Table 1 Samples distribution.

Table 2 The frequency distribution of WTP.

(2)The formula of RWTP is:In which,Mean is the mean of WTP.Median is the median of WTP in sample survey,RateWTP+is the positive rate of WTP.In our study,due to lack of direct market transaction price of forest culture in Diebu county,we also use CVM to evaluate the value of it.

3 Results and analysis

3.1 Results and analysis of WTP

3.1.1 Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis

In 170 effective questionnaires,there are 60 response samples are willing to pay for forest cultural value(i.e.,WTP＞0),accounting for 35.29%of total effective questionnaires,it shows that the low ratio of WTP for forest cultural value.In addition,there are some differences between the payment manners,payment forms,allocation preferences,payment motivations and reasons for NWTP for forest cultural value.Specifically:

(1)Payment manners:Including 3 manners of payment,monthly payment,yearly payment,and one-off payment.A one-off payment is different from annual and monthly payments.It is mainly a one-time payment of all WTP,and does not have to be paid at a set time in a year or a month.Three payment manners take the ratio of 15%,13.33%,and 71.67%respectively of the total number of WTP.The ratio for selecting for one-off payment is largest,and the ration for the yearly payment is the least.

In addition,we can see from Table 2,it is illustrated that choose to pay 50.00 RMB is highest,is about 31.67%of the total WTP;the next is to choose to pay 100 RMB yearly,accounting for about 20%of the total WTP;and the percentage of choosing 34,40 RMB and＞500 and＜1000 RMB is the smallest,is about 1.67%respectively.

(2)Payment forms:payment form mainly includes cash and tax,of which cash payment also contains pay cash to a local nature reserve or forest management agency,or donate money to a certain natural conservation fund in the country and entrust it for a special purpose only.Survey shows that most people choose cash form for the donation to a nature conservation fund for being entrusted for a special purpose only,accounting for about 21.76%of total number of effective samples;and the next comes for payment to a local forest management agency;lastly is to choose to pay by taxation,accounting for 5.88%of total effective samples(Fig.1).It also shows that people’s trust in local government agencies is not high.

(3)Payment preferences.The content of payment preference in this survey consists of four aspects:conserving local unique forest ecological system,conserving local forest special species and conducting relevant research(such as panda,black bear,snow leopard,etc.),conducting scientific research and education about local forest species,conserving local unique forest culture,tradition,customs,habit,and ecosystem,of which the proportion of total WTP is 28%,27%,25%,and 20%respectively.Concerning payment preferences,the general distribution is quite even.Among them,the payment preferences of conserving local unique forest ecosystem,conserving local forest special species and conducting relevant research,and conducting scientific research and education about local forest species are comparatively high,but the payment preference of conducting scientific research and education about local forest species,conserving local unique forest culture,tradition,customs,habit,and ecosystem is comparatively low.It accounts for only about 20%of the total WTP,which shows that the recognition of conservation of local forest culture is not sufficient in the local place.

(4)Payment motivations.The payment motivation mainly includes three aspects:conserving the sustainable existence of local forest culture,passing the local culture to children and descendants,and next generations to develop and utilize forest and animal resources.The selective proportion is quite even,accounting for 32%,33%,and 35%of total WTP respectively.

(5)NWTP.The questionnaires of the responses of not willing to pay for forest cultural value,i.e.,WTP=0,about 110 questionnaires,is accounting for 64.71%of the total effective questionnaires.The reasons for NWTP are classified as 6 types.The details are shown in Table 3.

Therefore,according to the survey results,the number of choice question of“low economic income with heavy family burden and being unable to pay”is the largest,account for 40.09%of NWTP.The next is the choice of“uninterested in this questionnaires”,accounting for 21.82%of NWTP.

3.1.2 Logistic regression analysis

In order to further analyze the factors affecting WTP for forest cultural value,we hereby adopt LRM to conduct analysis.As variable Y=1,it means that forest cultural value is response to be willing to pay.As Y=0,it means unwillingness to pay for it.The other impact factors are all explained as viable X.The details are shown in Table 4.

Firstly,SPSS software is utilized to standardize the survey data,and then the LRM is used for regression analysis.The results show that,among impact factors mentioned above,such as education level,professional knowledge,personal annual income,and the level of how familiar forest cultural value obviously influence the WTP of forest cultural value,among them p＜0.05,passed the statistical test,and there are statistical significance for 4 impact factors.Instead,in regression of other factors,the p＞0.05,which did not pass the statistical test.Therefore,they had no significant influence on the WTP of forest cultural value.

In addition,in order to better understand the impact degree for annual income to WTP for forest culturalvalue,personal annual income can be classified as three categories for analysis,i.e.,x61=below 5,000 RMB,x62=5,000-10,000 RMB,x63=30,000-40,000 RMB,and the results are shown in Table 5 in regression.

Fig.1 WTP for forest cultural value-payment form ratio distribution.

Therefore,according to the calculation results of Table 5,the regression equation is:

In equation(5),the regression coefficient b for the how familiar level x8i,the personal annual income level x61and x62are negative values,and the regression coefficients for the other three variables are all positive values.From the positiveness and negativeness of regression coefficients and the size of Wals values,we can see that:(1)People with the annual income is between 30,000-40,000 RMB(x63),with high level education background(x4i)and forestry professional knowledge(x7i)are willing to pay for forest cultural value,and they also have high WTP.(2)People with the annual income below 5,000 RMB(x61=0),and 5,000-10,000 RMB(x62=0)are not willing to pay for forest cultural value.Therefore,from the influential degree of each factor on NWTP,the factor of how familiar of forest cultural value has the least influence,of which the Wals’value is 3.84,sig.is 0.04,the significance level is less than 0,05,which mean that the significance test is passed.Similarly,the personal annual income x62is at 5,000 to 10,000 RMB has the greatest influence,of which the Wals’value is 5.45,and the sig.is 0.02,less than the significance level 0.05,which also indicates that personal annual income x62has a significant impact on WTP of forest cultural value.It also shows that different factors have different degrees of influence.

Table 4 Variable assignment table.

Table 5 Logistic regression results.

3.2 Value evaluation

According to the above study,the descriptive statistics analysis results show that the average value of WTP of the total effective samples of questionnaire is 53.71(WTP≥0),the median is 0,and the standard error is 172.31.The mean value of the sample(WTP＞0)is 152.71 RMB,median is 50 RMB,and the standard error is 264.22.All descriptive statistical results are in the range of statistical error and can be used to assess the value of WTP.

According to the formula of MWTP(3),the MWTP for forest cultural value of Diebu County in 2016 is calculated as per capita 53.71 RMB/a.Similarly,according to the formula of RWTP(4),the MWTP is calculated as per capita 18.96 RMB/a.Therefore,the evaluation of MWTP per capita is within 18.96 RMB/a and 53.71 RMB/a in Diebu County.According to statistics,in 2016,the population of Diebu County is 436,400,including 377,000 short-term tourists.Based on the theory of cultural value evaluation(Liang et al.,2014),forest cultural value in Diebu County in 2016 is calculated about between 8.2741 million RMB and 23.4390 million RMB.This has a certain reference value to understand the forest cultural value in Diebu County and can be used to promote the development of cultural protection.

4 Discussion

Aiming for the research of the above forest cultural value,following questions are specially discussed:

(1)Forest cultural value varies at temporal and spatial scale.Forest culture contains material culture,institutional culture and spiritual culture,which are mainly reflected in real life by such as tradition,customs,religion,system,letter symbols,and faith etc.(Su and Su,2004).As time and place change,these things are various.Therefore,when evaluating forest cultural values,the temporal and spatial scale should be considered,and the level of economic development at different temporal and spatial scale also should be taken into account,so as to objectively reflect the value of the forest culture.

(2)Above research indicates that among four major impacting factors of WTP for forest cultural value,the personal annual income has the greatest impact.The impact of educational level and professional knowledge is middle,and the influence of how familiar of forest cultural value is the least.Therefore,when evaluation the forest culture value,we should focus on improving the personal annual income level,enhancing education level improvement,popularizing the relevant professional knowledge on forests etc.This is an effective way to increase the WTP of forest culture,and it is also the main approach to raise the forest cultural values.

(3)At present,the CVM is mainly adopted for evaluation forest cultural value in the world(Zheng,2001),however,there is a big debate about it,and it needs to improve the questionnaire design,the choice of sampling method,etc.urgently so as to improve the scientific evaluation results.CVM is a kind of professional evaluation method for valuation of non-market trading resources.It needs professional staff to design the questionnaire and investigation.Therefore,when evaluation forest cultural value the investigators must be professionally trained,and did a large number of comparing case studies.In particular,comparing case studies of various situations around the world should be focused.That’s where we’re going in the future.

5 Conclusions

In this paper,we estimated and calculated the values of forest culture in Diebu County of Gansu province in China according to the LRM and WTP.The result of research shows that:

(1)The WTP for forest cultural value in Diebu County in 2016 is quite low,the number of persons willing to pay accounts for 35.29%of the total survey number of people.Thereof,the number of persons who choose to one-off payment accounts for 71.67%of total effective questionnaires.The number of persons who choose cash form for the donation to a nature conservation fund for being entrusted for a special purpose only,accounting for about 21.76%of total number of effective samples.Meanwhile,due to the low economic development level of Diebu County,the personal annual income,education level and professional knowledge level become the main impacting factors of WTP for forest cultural value.

(2)Among the impacting factors of WTP for forest cultural value in Diebu County,the factor of the how familiar level of forest cultural value is the least one,while the factor of personal annual income level and education level is the greatest one.This is very important in development and education of forest culture conservation.It is an effective way to increase the WTP of forest culture,and a main approach to raise the forest cultural values.

(3)People have willingness to pay for the forest cultural values at different temporal and spatial scale.In Diebu County of Gansu province,the range of MWTP is estimated between 8.2741 million RMB and 23.4390 million RMB in 2016.This has a certain reference value to promote and manage the forest cultural industry in local place.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of National Key Research and Development Program(2016YFC0500905)and national statistical science research major project of the State Statistical Bureau(2017LD03)in China.