[01] Mahidi Hasan Kawsar, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh. [02] Muha Abdullah Al Pavel, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh; Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. [03] Mohammad Belal Uddin, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh. [04] Syed Ajijur Rahman, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Section of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark; School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom; Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor Barat, Indonesia. [05] Md Abdullah Al Mamun, Department of Folklore, Faculty of Social Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. [06] Suziana Binti Hassan, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Section of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark; Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, University of Putra Malaysia, Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia. [07] Mohammad Shafioul Alam, Upazila Office, Laksam, Comilla, Bangladesh. [08] Rijan Tamrakar, Bioclimatology Department, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany. [09] Md Abdul Wadud, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Estimation of recreational benefits is an important tool for both biodiversity conservation and ecotourism development in national parks and sanctuaries. The design of this work is to estimate the recreational value and to establish functional relationship between travel cost and visitation of Lawachara National Park (LNP) in Bangladesh. This study employed zonal approach of the travel cost method. The work is grounded on a sample of 422 visitors of the LNP. Results showed that the total value of environmental assets of the LNP is 55,694,173 Taka/Year. Moreover, our suggestion based on visitors' willingness to pay is that the park entrance fee of 25 Tk per person should be introduced that could generate revenue approximate 2.3 million Taka/ year, beneficial for the park management and conservation of biodiversity.

Recreational Benefit, Ecotourism, Biodiversity Conservation, Folk Community

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