Measuring passive use value - Pledges, donations and CV responses in connection with an important natural resource

This paper examines monetary valuations of lost passive-use benefits associated with damage to a unique environmental resource - a national park, elicited through contingent valuation, and compares them with actual donations to the same end, where the latter are interpreted as a quasi-market expression of willingness to pay for non-market resource services. The relationships between the two valuation approaches were investigated in the specific context of an environmental episode which damaged a unique natural endowment, Israel's Carmel National Park. The empirical analysis is based on data from two sample surveys; one sample was drawn from the population of people who either pledged or pledged and donated during a fund-raising campaign following the episode, with the proceeds dedicated to rehabilitation or prevention of future episodes; the second sample was drawn from the general population of the country. The results cannot be interpreted as providing unqualified support for the reliability of contingent valuation as a means for obtaining passive use values.