ANALYSING THE ATTRIBUTES OF ECOLOGICAL EVALUATION ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS VIA WILLINGNESS TO PAY (WTP) - A HUNGARIAN CASE STUDY

The need for integrating natural resources into the development and decision-making processes of various sectors on a political level is becoming more and more apparent in the European Union. The number of ecological evaluation projects is on the rise, the areas of usage include anywhere from local, through national, to global levels. This study's results offer answers to: how local, and regional (national) Willingness to Pay (WTP for short), in other words, social interpretation of natural resources differ through Hungary; and how income, or personal connection becomes a defining factor for forming preferences regarding certain values. Local and regional WTP values were compared to the social-related costs of both a local, and a national ecological evaluation project. The analyses showed that different WTP evaluations yielded very different results, and that actual rehabilitation costs can be defined via different characteristics for various projects.