Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate citizen's preferences to the greenbelt project undertaken in Mt. Rokko, Hyogo and to value the externalities of the forest based on the citizen's preferences. The use of choice experiment, a type of stated preference method allows us to take into account the value of ecosystem which was not so often to be considered in a project evaluation. By comparing the estimated result of conditional logit model and nested logit model, it is shown that the latter is more reliable, and that, in selecting estimation method, it is important to consider the similarities between alternatives. According to the nested logit model, citizens valuethe function of recreational site and of preserving ecosystem (statistically significant), while they have a high valuation for the function of preventing soil erosion and landslide, c2 preventing flood and fostering water resource and (3) preserving living environment. Moreover, the possibility of the use of the valuation result in a policy-making is examined. This examination reveals that it has meaningful information which reflects citizen's preferences to the environment, and that it is useful for forecasting the social response to the policy which influences on the environment.
