The Lake Urmia and its satellite wetlands have been selected
as a demonstration site for the United Nations Development
Program / Global Environment Facility / Department of Environment
Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project. This project
aims to demonstrate reduction of the major threats of this
wetland protected area coordinated through an integrated management
plan. A choice experiment was developed to examine
public preferences and elicit their willingness to pay on improvements
in lake’s indicators toward good environmental
status. A pilot choice experiment study was administered in
Urmia municipality and the data were analyzed using a random
parameter logit model. The results revealed that residents of
this municipality might strongly prefer improvement in water
quantity and were willing to pay significant amounts to promote
current water level to the highest level. Furthermore, water
quality, numbers of flamingos andArtemia stock were identified
as the next important issues which warranted additional management
attention