Valoração econômica da Gruta do Maquiné em Cordisburgo MG: uma aplicação do método do custo de viagem

• Autor(a) principal: Paula, Zélia Rodrigues de
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/10
• topic: Valoração econômica; Excedente do consumidor; Gruta do Maquiné; Economic valuation; Consumer surplus; Maquine Cavern; CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::ECONOMIA::ECONOMIAS AGRARIA E DOS RECURSOS NATURAIS::ECONOMIA DOS RECURSOS NATURAIS

The Maquine Cavern is an important natural resource system located at Cordisburgo, in the state of Minas Gerais. It was built by nature in the last few thousand years and it is a significant source of knowledge to researchers and income to local people. Therefore, it is very important to preserve it. Visitors characteristics and econometric estimation of demand systems are key information which may be important to resource management decisions at local, state and federal levels. This study objective was to find the economic value of the Maquine Cavern. Specifically, the objectives were: a) To profile the Maquine Cavern visitor; b) To analyze the consumer surplus and the visitors response to variations in the admission fee by county; b) To analyze the consumer surplus and the visitors response to variations in the admission fee by consumer. The theory behind this study was the demand theory and public goods theory which support economic valuation methodologies to estimate natural resource prices . The analytical procedure was the Travel Cost method. Data were obtained by interviews (298) made with visitors in July 2007. Results showed that most visitors have high educational levels and generally do not travel alone and visit Maquine Cavern for the first time. Visitors which travel using their own cars show a high demand for visits and most visitors have monthly income between 2 and 5 minimum wages. The estimated Maquine Cavern average value with county data, i.e., the average willingness to pay for visits to the Maquine Cavern, revealed by visitors decisions in each county, was R$ 80.654,81. The average willingness to pay for visits to the Maquine Cavern, revealed by visitors when using individual data, was even smaller, R$ 12.688,32. The main conclusion was that estimated values do not show the real willingness to pay by individual for Maquine Cavern visits since the travel cost method did allow only the estimation of use values which represents a small part of total economic value of this natural resource.