A survey of economic benefits of the nonconsumptive use of wildlife in the Maritime Provinces

This study was done as a survey of the Maritime Provinces during the spring and fall of 1968. Three groups of people were sampled by a delayed mail type questionnaire. The groups included were members of natural history and bird watching groups, a random sample from the population as a whole, and a professional sample consisting of doctors, lawyers and university professors. The objectives of the study were threefold: first to establish a technique which could measure the benefits of the non-—consumptive use of the wildlife resource, and to translate these benefits into measurable units of value: secondly, to establish the relative importance of non-consumptive benefits and true consumptive benefits; and thirdly to establish differences in participation and preferences for various age and income strata of the public, and to attempt to estimate possible future trends in outdoor recreation demand. The emphasis of the study was toward the more or less "unplanned" activities such as Sunday drives or walks close to the home. All returned usable questionnaires were coded for computer analysis and these data are to be found in the text. The results of this study indicated that the delayed mail survey yielded sufficient amounts of data in a usable form to give valid results when analysed. Results of the study also indicated that non- consumptive use of the natural environment is now as important both economically and socially as consumptive use in the Provinces studied, and that we may expect an increase (proportionally) of non-consumptive recreation choices as hunting and fishing decrease. This increase in appreciative use was found to be the result of increasing education and urbanization, rather than of age, of the respondants. This trend is probably now underway and if it follows patterns revealed by similar studies elsewhere will probably increase rapidly. It is evident then that resource planners of all kinds realize this present demand and its future implications as most important guidelines in any considerations dealing with land use management.