Enriching Stakeholder participation through Environmental Valuation; Eliciting Preferences for a National Park Designation in Northern Ireland

This paper provides the theoretical framework and describes the preliminary steps for combining collaborative planning and non-market valuation techniques to improve the decision making process and stakeholder involvement in land use decisions. Combining components of Collaborative Planning (CP) — a Planning theory seeking to achieve the highest level of consensus possible amongst all stakeholders — with non-market valuation techniques (Travel Cost Method and Contingent Behaviour) - widely used in environmental economics — this study attempts to elicit the preferences of the Northern Ireland population which could be affected by the proposed designation of a National Park. The CP elements of public participation are first used as an aid to design the survey instrument and then explored as a means of the validation of results analysed from the survey. In a Contingent Behaviour survey, key attributes are set at varying levels to assess how respondents’ welfare would be affected by hypothetical changes in the management and infrastructures of a recreational area.