Abstract
CVM (Contingent Valuation Method) has recently been employed in many research cases. However, researchers have to examine the results in terms of validity and reliability. When the object of CVM is the environment, it is necessary for people to have a sufficient understanding of environmental issues if their answers are to carry appropriate value. However, environmental values differ among people depending on individual characteristic, attitude toward the environment, as well as levels of previous awareness and understanding of the environment. It is accepted that such differences affect evaluation values, such as willingness to pay and certainty of willingness to pay. From the point of view, CVM is applied to evaluate properly the lake Abashiri that has been working on conserving and purifying the environment. This study examines the relationship between the factors affecting evaluation value of CVM, and compares several cases: differing values in environmental evaluation; evaluation by respondents living near the object environment versus those living far from it; difference depending on survey method. We collected 2, 050 questionnaire respondents and clarified how much people's previous awareness levels affected the evaluation values, and suggest ways to increase the validity of CVM as well as to evaluate appropriately the value of environmental quality.
