Preservation versus development on Irish rivers: whitewater kayaking and hydro-power in Ireland

This paper's contribution to the understanding of outdoor recreational pursuits in Ireland is based on the estimation of the first whitewater kayaking demand function. We use this empirical work to investigate the more general conflict between whitewater recreational pursuits and hydro-electric schemes on “wild” rivers. Our study is of methodological interest in that it combines data collected from two different sources; the internet and an on-site survey. We show that both data sources can be pooled, thus alleviating the problem of endogenenous stratification that is found when carrying out on-site surveys alone. Through the estimation of a travel cost model, the study derives the mean willingness to pay of the average kayaker using the Roughty river in Co. Kerry. This result indicates the high value of the Roughty river as a whitewater recreational resource.