Estimation of the total economic value of ecosystem functions in the northern part of the Central Alborz Protected Area

Valuing ecosystem functions provides conditions to prevent them from considering them as worthless. To achieve the research goal, first, the value of the production, regulatory and recreational functions of the study area has been estimated, and then the value of biodiversity was estimated using the Choise Experiment approach and the simple conditional logit model. The research results showed that the minimum economic value of each hectare of ecosystem services provided in this area is estimated at 1132.76 million Rials. The Recreational function has the highest value among other studied ecosystem services and has assigned to himself.71.5% of value share of services. The willingness to pay the annual final payment for biodiversity is estimated at 174,430 Rials per person, that feature of improving the condition of animal species has been the most important feature from the visitors' point of view. Therefore, the biodiversity value of each hectare of the studied area is estimated at 49 million Rials. Monetary values should be placed along with ecological knowledge and social value in order to give a correct approach to practical studies and actions of conservation. Therefore, it is emphasized that the value of 157867.2 billion Rials estimated for the central Alborz protected area is the minimum value that could be extracted due to the limitations.