Penang National Park (PNP), as Malaysia’s smallest national park, is one of the few naturally forested areas left on Penang Island, in Peninsular Malaysia. The main objective was to analyse users’ preferences and willingness to pay to enhance improved management of PNP for the dual aim of conservation and recreation. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the formation of attitudes towards different aspects of PNP. Results showed that implementing enforcements with rules and regulations and imposing permits and charges on certain activities were the most influential variables of PNPs’ perceptions. The results of a random parameter logit model (RPL) demonstrated that visitors placed the highest value on having adequate information about PNP, and the second-highest value on improvements in the park’s ecological management. The welfare measure for improvement in management of PNP against status quo is estimated at about MYR 9. Results also showed that demand for better conservation and management of PNP is relatively price-inelastic. Simulations of the results showed, under a MYR10 admission fee, that improvement in management would have 96% of market share compared with status quo. This study concluded that visitor entrance fees can and ought to be introduced as a means of financing conservation initiatives and possibly preventing congestion.

The main objective of this study is to elicit the benefits that arise from Shadegan wetland in southern Iran to the users of this ecosystem, who are impacted most significantly by degradation/conversion of this ecosystem. Hence, a choice experiment (CE) and contingent valuation method (CVM) survey of users of the Shadegan wetland were conducted to estimate the value of non-market services provided by the wetland. The benefits from high-level conservation of the wetland are estimated from CVM to be about US$ 2.26 per household of users. Meanwhile, the estimated compensated surplus from CE was about US$ 8.28. Findings of this study suggest that the high value of Shadegan wetland for user communities can help policy-makers and wetland managers adopt policies that have no further conversion benefits than conservation or risks of degradation.