  Citation: Matthew, N.K.; Shuib, A.; Raja Gopal, N.G.; Zheng, G.I. Economic Value of Recreation as an Ecosystem Service in Ayer Keroh Recreational Forest, Malaysia. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4935. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su14094935 Academic Editors: Csaba Centeri and Eszter Tormáné Kovács Received: 28 December 2021 Accepted: 8 April 2022 Published: 20 April 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Economic Value of Recreation as an Ecosystem Service in Ayer Keroh Recreational Forest, Malaysia Nitanan Koshy Matthew 1,2, * , Ahmad Shuib 3 , Nitya Ganeshwaari Raja Gopal 1 and Goh Ie Zheng 1 1 Department of Environment, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia; uk34622nitya@gmail.com (N.G.R.G.); nickey.goh@gmail.com (G.I.Z.) 2 Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security (ITAFoS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia 3 School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia; mad.shuib@gmail.com * Correspondence: nitanankoshy@upm.edu.my Abstract: Economic values of various ecosystem services of recreational forests are not well under- stood in many countries, including Malaysia. Policymakers and resource managers with a lack of such information may make inappropriate decisions to manage forest resources. To address the information problem, this study used data and estimated the economic value of recreation as a cultural ecosystem service of the Ayer Keroh Recreational Forest (AKRF) in Malaysia using the Travel Cost Method (TCM). The study estimated an economic value of USD 20,346/ha/year for cultural services, including recreation. These findings provide some useful information that might be needed for those involved in planning and management for the development of urban forest sites, especially in AKRF. Keywords: cultural services; economic value; Travel Cost Method; urban recreational forest 1. Introduction and Problem Statement Forests provide a multitude of ecosystem services. The values of the services vary with local conditions. The maximum use of forest services requires policy decisionmakers and forest managers to understand the economic value of the forest services based on the market and non-market values. Such values are rarely estimated for many kinds of forests, especially in Malaysia. Recreational forests offering recreational experiences are remarkable, especially in ASEAN countries where the demand for nature-based attractions is increasing [1,2]. This is only one of the ecosystem services provided by a recreational forest. There are many other services where values are either underestimated or have no monetary value due to the lack of an economic valuation basis [2]. Recreation may become economically sound when forests involved in the estimation are scarce or when public funds are used for recreational forest development, conservational activities, and management. Compared to various other types of forests, a recreational forest has its own charac- teristics, with its official establishment purpose being for public use in terms of relaxation, picnics, and recreation [3]. Forests in protected areas, such as national parks, are zoned based on the categories of strict protection, recreation, conservation and management, and production [4]. However, out of all categories, there are also recreational forests es- tablished only for recreational purposes, with no other use-zones established. There are many single-zoned, recreational forests in Malaysia. To date, there is scant research of recreational forests. 1.1. Ecosystem Services Ecosystems vary both in size and, arguably, complexity, and may be nested one within another [5]. Ecosystem services are benefits that people obtain from the various ecosystem Sustainability 2022, 14, 4935. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14094935 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability