Valuing Environmental Services for Recreation in the Margalla Hills National Park, Islamabad

The study focuses on PES in the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP)  in Pakistan,  covering 15,800 hectares on the outskirts of Islamabad. It reveals insufficient capture of potential park revenues and recommends an entrance fee of Rs 20 per visitor to enhance park revenues, based on the Individual Travel Cost Method.  Imposing this fee would generate an annual revenue of Rs 11 million (3.5 million USD.) and could improve park services.  The study underlines the importance of using nonmarket valuation techniques to estimate hitherto uncaptured and undercaptured economic benefits from environmental resources such as national parks.