ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the use of a conservationist valuation framework to assess preferences for stereotypical features of the British coast. It provides a relatively objective basis for evaluating the physical characteristics that give natural resources a conservation value and identifies criteria that are widely accepted as being significant in determining conservation value. Total economic value consists of values derived partially from use and partially from the discrete existence of natural resources taking a naturally determined time horizon. Valuers and economists are relatively confident of then ability to measure the price which users are prepared to pay to exercise their right to use natural resources. A direct relationship between non-use and conservation values would support the hypothesis that conservation quality levels could be used as a surrogate in the attribution of non-use values to coastal resources. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) provides a framework for estimating non-use values in that it captures user benefits and non-user benefits.