Valuing recreational ecosystem services in developing cities: The case of urban parks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

Despite the growing body of evidence showing benefits and values of recreational ecosystem services, in sub-Saharan Africa, such evidence is extremely limited. This is problematic, and may perhaps explain their current poor condition. This study uses a random survey of households residing in Dar es Salaam to value the benefits of urban parks. The estimation is based on random utility framework where different models, with varying assumptions on preference and scale heterogeneity, are estimated. Our findings indicate that the marginal willingness to pay is highest for nature parks, followed by multi-use parks and neighbourhood parks. The willingness to pay for neighbourhood parks decreases as distance increases. Specifically, and depending on the assumptions, the marginal willingness to pay for nature parks ranges between US$0.40 - US$0.79 per month. Households are willing to pay US$0.27 - US$0.69 per month for multi-use parks. Under neighbourhood parks, this value is $0.10 - US$0.47. The policy implications for planning and management are i) the city authorities know the type of green infrastructure to invest in different locations in Dar es Salaam, and ii) there is potential to generate extra revenue from urban parks in developing countries.