Community and ecotourist perceptions of forest conservation benefits: a case study of Mabira Central Forest Reserve, Uganda

The different interests in forest resources by various stakeholders may result in differences in perceived value of forest conservation. In order to test this hypothesis, we compared the valuation by international ecotourists and local respondents of the perceived benefits of the Mabira Central Forest Reserve. The factors that influenced respondents' valuation of forest conservation were also investigated. Describing a hypothetical scenario to elicit respondents' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for forest conservation was the central part of the questionnaire. The WTP; income ratio was used to estimate respondents' perceived value of forest conservation. A chi-square (chi(2)) test indicated significant association between respondent category (local and tourist) and categories of perceived benefits (p-value = 0.001). The locals were more interested in direct-use values while the tourists showed greater interest in the indirect-use values. A Student's t-test showed that the WTP: income ratios of the locals were much higher than for the ecotourists (p-value < 0.001). This implies that the local communities had a higher valuation of forest conservation than the ecotourists. Regression analysis revealed that all other factors being constant, the WTP of respondents who perceived direct- and indirect-use value as the most important forest benefit was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those who perceived no value by $5.8693 and $0.02628, respectively. The respondents who rated the contribution of the ecotourism project to community development as moderate had a significantly higher WTP compared to those who rated it as low by $6.6908. Overall, these results indicate that the benefits people derive from the forest either through direct or indirect uses influence valuation of forest conservation. Results also indicate that although ecotourism-related benefits improved attitudes towards forest conservation, ecotourism alone may not be an adequate conservation tool because of the limited support it can provide to the local community.