The improvement of solidwaste management in Cibodas Botanical Garden through environmental economic valuation using the travel cost method

Abstract

Cibodas Botanical Garden (CBG) is believed to have high environmental value for its function as conservation area and beautiful scenery. However, prior to this research, there is lack of economic valuation to determine the total value of CBG, including its environment. The local government, on the other hand, needs such environmental economic valuation to execute better decisions related to the CBG. This study aims at providing the mostly-needed economic valuation through the application of Travel Cost Method. The Travel Cost Method (TCM) is a method to calculate the economic value of products or services that do not own market value. This method utilises total cost of consumers who travel to certain places, preferably tourist destinations. The cost spent by consumers are considered as their willingness to pay (WTP) for the visited destination(s). In this study, TCM is used by preparing questionnaires for Cibodas visitors, analysing the results of the questionnaires, calculating the total economic value (TEV) of Cibodas, determining the consumer surplus, and proposing environmental programs at CBG. At the end, it was calculated that the TEV of Cibodas Botanical Garden is IDR113,072,532,700 with average WTP of the visitors IDR202,484 per visitor and the consumer surplus of IDR32,344 per visitor. Also, this study reveals that solid waste management improvement at CBG can be funded by potential income from the consumer surplus.