Measuring the economic benefit of maintaining the ecological integrity of the Río Mameyes in Puerto Rico.

Abstract

A contingent valuation in-person survey of Puerto Rican households was performed from April to August 1995 to estimate their willingness-to-pay for preserving instream flows in the Río Mameyes and avoiding a dam on the Río Fajardo. Annual willingness-to-pay was $21 for each river. When expanded to the 1 million households in Puerto Rico for the 5-year period households were asked to pay, this amount increased to $110 million for the Ríos Mameyes and Fajardo. Visitors to the Río Mameyes indicated they would reduce trips by 93 percent if 10 million gallons daily were withdrawn from the river, resulting in a loss of $250,000 in annual recreation benefits. Both the household and recreation values can be compared to the costs of repairing water lines and in-home water conservation measures to determine if there are more net benefits to these alternative sources of water than withdrawals from the Rio Mameyes.

Citation

González-Cabán, Armando; Loomis, John. 1999. Measuring the economic benefit of maintaining the ecological integrity of the Río Mameyes in Puerto Rico. Res. Paper PSW-RP-240. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; 61 p