Economic valuation of the forest biodiversity in Mexico, a review

The growing deterioration of natural resources creates the need to value ecosystem aservices, including biodiversity. The economic value has focused on non-market goods and services, which is complicated. Techniques have been developed to measure these values whose acceptance has increased lately. A search of economic valuation made in Mexico was conducted. Almost all valuation studies undertaken in the country are restricted to travel cost (TCM) and contingent valuation (CVM) methods. The only level of biodiversity explored was at level of ecosystem. At the level of gene or species no studies have been developed in terms of non-market goods and services. The most widely valuation method used is the contingent valuation (11 studies), followed by the travel cost method with one study, which was conducted along with the CVM. Eight studies did not consider the most important biases (time, substitution, multiple destinations, payment instrument, strategic and hypothetical) of these methods.