ABSTRACT
For a complex resource such as Alaska’s wildlife, total value has many connotations. Confining ourselves at the outset to the rather narrowly construed utilitarian model basic to standard welfare economics, two connotations of total value are obvious. First, total value should encompass all of the various uses that humans make of wildlife resources, ranging from hunting and observation of particular species, to the contribution of the richness and diversity of wildlife, to the ambiance that makes Alaska a special place to visit or live in. Second, there is a concern that, even after all of the various use values have been captured, something(s) important (e.g., option and existence values) might be missed. The total value framework developed below addresses both sets of issues, although the emphasis is most often on the relationships between total value, use value, and various kinds of nonuse values.
