Valuing the Recreational Services Provided by Hungary’s Forest Ecosystems

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to assess the economic value of recreation as an ecosystem service enjoyed by hikers in Hungary’s forests. The assessment is carried out in the framework of a national undertaking to map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in Hungary under the EU’s biodiversity strategy. As is common in the policymaking context, the constraints of the project did not allow for a primary study. We therefore rely on previous studies and combine several approaches to arrive at a value estimate on two scales. First, we conduct a local case study, calculating travel costs for the Pilis Biosphere Reserve, a popular hiking area where visitor surveys are available. We then estimate the unit (value per visit) and total value of forest recreation for the whole country by a different approach, based on foreign studies via benefit transfer. We find that the results from the two approaches are consistent and that the monetary value of forest recreation (in the form of hiking/walking) is approximately 10 million EUR/year for the Pilis Biosphere Reserve and approximately 100 million EUR/year for the whole country.