Determination of the total economic value of recreational services of Bursa Atatürk Forest recreation area

Forests are renewable natural resources under certain conditions that form ecosystems that are vital for all living things with the goods and services they provide. Forest resources meet the various needs of people by providing economic, social and cultural benefits with the tangible and intangible products they produce. Some products such as wood raw materials from the goods and services produced by the forests are priced in the market and are traded. However, since services such as oxygen produced by forests, landscaping, erosion prevention and biodiversity are not traded in the market, their economic value is uncertain. It is also known that forests produce and recreation services are partially below their economic value in the market. In order to allocate resources effectively, the economic value of all benefits from these resources should be calculated properly. For determination of the total economic value of the goods and services provided from the forest ecosystem, it is necessary to know the economic value of the products with a certain market price, as well as the goods and services that do not have a market. In this way, the total economic value of forest resources is estimated. These estimations can sometimes be made for the total economic value of the product obtained based on the ecosystem services of forest resources and sometimes only on the basis of a certain function. In this thesis, it is aimed to estimate the economic value of the services offered to the society by Bursa Atatürk Forest Recreation Area, considering only its recreational function. For this purpose, the total economic value of the recreation services offered to the society by Bursa Atatürk Forest Recreation Area was estimated using the contingent valuation method. As of 2020, Atatürk Ormanı Recreation Area's consumer surplus per capita was estimated as 6.57 ₺ ($0.94), the average payment tendency as 8.57 ₺ ($1.22), the total payment tendency of the current recreation services in the area as 56,153,482.16 ₺/yr ($8.021.926,02 per year) and total passive value as 122,147,865,53 ₺/yr ($17,449,695.08 per year). Accordingly, the annual total economic value of the recreation services of the area was determined as 178,301,347,69 ₺/yr ($25,471,621.10 per year) according to the prices of 2020. With this thesis, it was contributed to the valuation studies in forestry and helped managers of forest resources to success in decision on allocation of forests to recreational services and in project design of recreation areas. Keywords: Natural resources, forest resources, valuation, contingent valuation, functions of forests, externalities in forests, total economic value.