The role of education in peopleʹʹs willingness to pay for Conservation of oak forests in Kurdistan

ABSTRACT: In this study, the economic role of education has been studied in increasing the peopleʹs willingness to protect the oak forests of Kurdistan. To do this, 130 questionnaires has been collected by a random sampling from those who were living in the cities including Baneh, Marivan, Qorveh, Sanandaj, and Kamyarn where the oak trees are located. Statistical population of the study consisted of two groups; first people who were participated in the training courses held by State Natural resource of Sanandaj and second group were the people who were not participated in the training courses. Data collection methods were questionnaire and interview. Validity of the questionnaire has been formally approved by the specialists. To evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire the Cranach’s Alpha test was used and it was 83 percent which is an acceptable percent. The results showed that the trained and untrained groups willing to pay a monthly charge per person to protect the ecosystem of oak forest has been in the first group, 42.341 dollars and the second group, 12.364 dollars The results showed that the increasing information of the people about importance of in the oak forest protection will lead to a significant increase in their willingness to pay for the conservation of this ecosystem. At the end, according to the results some recommendations have been drawn up for forest conservation.