Valuing Recreational Benefits of Urban Green Spaces in Nairobi City: an Application of Travel Cost Method

Abstract

There has been increased support for environmental based urban green spaces (UGS), that offers variety of benefits to population such as health, environmental conservancy and recreational amenities for improved life quality. Regrettably, the economic values of Nairobi Green spaces are unknown, hence imminent neglect and encroachment that has contributed to their diminishing size and quality. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the recreational benefits values and assess key drivers influencing visits to Karura forest, Uhuru Park and all Nairobi parks combined. The objective was achieved by use of data collected from 669 Nairobi households. The demand function for the green spaces visits was generated using travel cost method (TCM) and further estimated using Truncated Poisson model (ZTP) model. The recreation value for All Parks combined, Uhuru Park and Karura was estimated at US$ 70.9M, 42.5M, and 6.4M per annum respectively. The results provide support for informed decision making such as improved budgetary allocations, cost benefit assessment for competing projects, policies aimed at conserving, maintaining and expansion of more urban green spaces.