The willingness of inhabitants in medium-sized city and the city's surroundings settlements to pay for recreation in urban forests in Poland

The aim of the study was to determine the willingness-to-pay (WTP) in exchange for recreation, to determine the dependency between the frequency of visits and willingness of forest users to make contributions for urban forests and the appearance of the forest, as well as the sociological characteristics of the respondents. The research was carried out on the example of the medium-sized city of Tarnow, southern Poland. To this aim, a survey was conducted on a group of 309 adult respondents inhabitants of Tarnow city and city's surroundings settlements. For statistical analysis, the Classification And Regression Trees (CART) method was used to determine the dependency between the declared contributions and the characteristics of respondents, and the Principal Components Analysis for examining the dependency between WTP and the appearance (structure) of the forest. The dependency between the frequency of visits to urban forests and the demographics was analysed by chi-square test and one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that 97% of respondents are willing to make payments for urban forests, the amount of which differed depending on their place of residence, education, and age. Also, the vast majority of respondents make their WTP contributions dependent on the appearance of the forest. This applies in particular to a multi-stratum, multi-species forest with the undergrowth and recreational infrastructure. In addition, the frequency of visits to the area is affected by gender and place of residence. The obtained results are especially important for the recreation function of urban forests including willingness of inhabitants in Tarnow city and surroundings settlements.

Automated summary

The study aimed to determine the willingness of urban forest users in Tarnow, Poland to make contributions, finding that the majority are willing to pay, with amounts varying based on factors like residence, education, and age. Contributions were also linked to the appearance of the forest, particularly favoring multi-stratum forests with diverse species and recreational infrastructure. Gender and place of residence also influenced the frequency of visits to the area.