| Summary: | Protection of mangrove forests entails the decrease and restriction of their injudicious
uses by local people and therefore imposes opportunity costs on poor local communities,
which often depend on these forest resources for their subsistence. This study aims to
quantify the economic opportunity cost of conservation for coastal communities living in
areas adjacent to mangrove forests in the southern coasts of Iran. The main commercial
uses of the mangrove forests in this area are restricted to fishing, tourist boating
trips, and limited leaves cutting. We applied a choice experiment method to measure the
costs of the forest exploitation reduction under hypothetical protection scenarios in
which local users would receive monetary compensation to lessen or forgo mangrove forest
utilization. The results showed that local communities are willing to accept lower
compensation when the protection is meant to decrease the frequency of Hara cutting and
fishing, as opposed to banning recreational opportunities. The mean WTA was estimated to
be 55 662 500 IRR.hsld-1.yr-1 (2026 USD), which was generally lower than opportunity
costs in the form of foregone income. Before implementing any policies related to equity,
our findings can provide policymakers with useful prior knowledge and prescription.
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