A new study from an economics professor and his students at Thompson Rivers University suggests the dollar value of parks in Kamloops; outweighs the value of the city’s housing and commercial buildings.

As of 2022, the value of physical capital in Kamloops is approximately $24 billion.

Peter Tsigaris and his team believe the value of parks can easily exceed the value of built capital, as parks provide opportunities for tourism, recreation, and culture.

He was inspired by a study which assessed the value of New York City’s Central Park.

“I found another study that was done for the iconic Central Park in New York, there was a real estate appraisal firm that appraised the 341 hectares of the Central Park, at I think $500 billion.”

Tsigaris says he decided to localize it with his class by assigning each of them to a park in Kamloops.

“They went to BC assessment and they looked at the land value of the properties next to the park and they averaged these out and then they used that to figure out the value of the parks and then they assume that the parks themselves yield the ecosystem.”

He explains how they determined the value of the yields for the ecosystem services each park provides. 

“Services in terms of recreational and cultural activities, regulating air quality, creating shade, and supporting services; in the sense that the park is not only used by humans, but also by birds and insects,” explained Tsigaris. “That is what we call ecosystem services, just like any asset that provides a yield, natural capital also provides the yield.”

An example as Tsigaris explains is Kenna Cartwright Nature Park, which has an estimated value of $3 billion, with the flow of ecosystem services estimated at $45 million each year, topped with a two per cent increase annually.

“It’s not for sale, but if it has a value on it, then people will see it, be aware of it and see it from a different lens, and a sense that ‘oh, I have this wealth that I didnt even know I had as a citizen of Kamloops.”

Titled “A Study of the Value of Kamloops Parks,” TRU says in a release that Leila Abubakar, Ayoola Ajani, Saaransh Bhardwaj, Adaku Ibekwe, Arwinddeep Kaur, Sheikh Farzin Rahman, Umma Shemo, Rashad Taghiyev, Jake Truscott and David Waithe worked on the book with Tsigaris.