CONTINGENT VALUATION METHOD FOR URBAN GREEN SPACE: CASE OF BUKIT KIARA, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Urban green space plays an important role in mitigating negative externalities from rapid urban development. Issues such as urban heat, health concerns and pollution are commons problems that urban citizens need to hinder every day. Urban green space also functioned as a social, recreation and education space for urbanites. Bukit Kiara located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur serves as the lung of the metropolitan city. Alongside diminishing green areas issue and threatened by misused of land, an economic valuation is crucial to ensure the establishment of this space. This paper aims to study the visitor's willingness to pay for the conservation of Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as recreation resources. Two hundred seventy visitors to the park have been selected as respondents. Using the double-bonded contingent valuation method, the willingness to pay for the visitors in Bukit Kiara was RM2.17 per entry. The research findings can be used by policymakers to plan for the conservation of Bukit Kiara.