New Zealand big game hunting values: a benefit transfer study

Abstract

New Zealand recreational hunting interests have argued that the larger introduced mammals, including deer (various species, but most prominently Red deer), chamois (rupicapra rupicapra), tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) and pigs (Sus scrofa), should be managed to enhance the recreational benefits from hunting. The New Zealand Game Animal Council (NZGAC) has been promoted as an agency that would be responsible for managing hunting on public lands that are not of critical importance for conservation purposes (GACEC, 2010). Part of the argument for establishment of the NZGAC is that hunting is a significant source of recreation benefits (GACEC, 2009). However, there are no national or regional estimates of the scale of those benefits, either for the current state of recreational game animal hunting, or under alternative future management strategies that could be implemented for the purposes of improving the quality of hunting experiences. There is limited and dated local information that may not be relevant to contemporary conditions. The purpose of this study is to apply value transfer to estimate the magnitude of New Zealand recreational big game hunting benefits and, if possible, to gain an understanding of the factors that affect big game hunting values.