Economic Evaluation of Italian Parks and Natural Areas

The estimate of the Economic Value of environmental goods and services is a fundamental aspect for environmental management decisions. However, the failure of the market in valuing this type of goods imposes the use of non market valuation techniques, as the Contingent Valuation, the Travel Cost and the Hedonic Price Methods. These methods have gained increasing trustworthiness in the international academic world. A systematic search of the available literature in Italy was conducted in an effort to review as many empirical studies as possible from the beginnings of the Italian experience in environmental evaluation to 1999 and to produce a summary measure of the value of Italian parks and natural areas. Using an L estimator (linear order statistics estimator), and four M estimators (maximum likelihood type estimators) a per capita and per hectare net economic value for Italian environmental areas have been estimated. This information could be used to estimate the benefits deriving from the creation of a new park (or protected area) in Italy, to compare with costs this creation implicates.