Economic Value of Big Game Hunting: The Case of Moose Hunting in Ontario Available to Purchase

Greater emphasis in recent years on sustainable resource management in forestry has generated higher demand for information on various nontimber values. Since most of the nontimber resources are not exchanged in conventional markets, their economic values are not readily available. This paper estimates the demand for and the economic value of a popular nontimber resource, recreational moose hunting in Ontario, using the travel cost method. In view of censored and truncated nature of moose hunting trips data and the bag limit, we used four alternative count data models, the Poisson, Geometric, the Negative Binomial type II and the Creel and Loomis models, to estimate the demand for recreational moose hunting. The results indicate that the demand for recreational moose hunting declines with higher travel cost and lower income and that the demand is both price and income inelastic. The results also indicate that truncation reduces the magnitude of both price and income elasticities. Finally, the estimated consumer surplus varies widely across model specifications. A direct implication of this result is that it is not only important to generate meaningful economic values of various nontimber resources, but it is also important to select the most appropriate set of values from a number of alternatives. Given the data and institutional characteristics, we recommend that the estimated benefits from the truncated Geometric and the Creel and Loomis models (C$175 to C$210 per moose hunting trip) should be used for policy purposes.