IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/teepxx/v7y2018i4p452-462.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A method to value nature-related webcam viewing: the value of virtual use with application to brown bear webcam viewing

Author

Listed:
  • John Loomis
  • Leslie Richardson
  • Chris Huber
  • Jeffrey Skibins
  • Ryan Sharp

Abstract

There are an estimated 16,000 nature related remote web cameras that provide users around the world with an opportunity to view wildlife. Because there is no monetary price to view the webcams, we utilise variations in the viewers’ opportunity cost of time to estimate consumer surplus. We apply this model to a large sample (n = 2649) of the more than 10 million viewers of Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve brown bear webcams. The resulting consumer surplus is around $11 per hour of viewing. When applied to the 2.42 million viewer hours, this yields a benefit of $27 million annually. Since there are limits on the number of visitors as well as high costs of visiting this remote site, the aggregate webcam viewing value is more than twice the aggregate on-site viewing value. With minimal survey data required to apply this model, we believe it has broad applicability to other nature-related webcams around the world.

Suggested Citation

  • John Loomis & Leslie Richardson & Chris Huber & Jeffrey Skibins & Ryan Sharp, 2018. "A method to value nature-related webcam viewing: the value of virtual use with application to brown bear webcam viewing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 452-462, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:teepxx:v:7:y:2018:i:4:p:452-462
    DOI: 10.1080/21606544.2018.1483842
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/21606544.2018.1483842
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/21606544.2018.1483842?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kolstoe, Sonja H. & Kline, Jeffrey D. & Lohr, Luanne, 2022. "Economic Approaches for Managing Migratory Bird Habitat Across Multi-Owner Landscapes," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 20(1), May.
    2. Kolstoe, Sonja & Naald, Brian Vander & Cohan, Alison, 2022. "A tale of two samples: Understanding WTP differences in the age of social media," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    3. Enriquez, Aaron J. & Finnoff, David C., 2021. "Managing mortality of multi-use megafauna," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Richardson, Leslie, 2022. "The Economic Benefits of Wildlife: The Case of Brown Bears in Alaska," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 20(1), May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:teepxx:v:7:y:2018:i:4:p:452-462. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/teep20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.