Introduction

While typically unpriced, recreational time is often the most valuable part of any day (Broadhurst, 2001). This chapter discusses applications of the CV and TC methods to the valuation of unpriced, open-access recreation in UK woodlands. The following section presents a review of the existing literature, after which we describe analyses undertaken as part of this research. We conducted three separate woodland recreation valuation studies, all in the UK: two in Thetford Forest, East Anglia, and one in and around Wantage, Oxfordshire. These are subsequently referred to as the Thetford 1, Thetford 2 and Wantage studies. The design of these studies reflected both the previous findings and research objectives set out in Chapter 2 (i.e. to investigate the validity and sensitivity of measures) and the desire to obtain values which were of use within our wider CBA. In Chapter 4 we consider the transferability of these findings to our wider study area of Wales.

Review of the literature

In the UK there have been more applications of the CV and TC methods to the evaluation of woodland recreation than of any other open-access recreational good. A review of the literature identified over forty relevant papers containing over a hundred monetary evaluation estimates (see details in Bateman, 1996). These included studies calculating national-level values, estimates based on household once-and-for-all payments and various other measures which were of little use in our wider study.