Ocean and Polar Research

Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (한국해양과학기술원)
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Assessing the Willingness-to-Pay of a Scuba Diving Management in a Soft Coral Marine Protected Area

다이버를 대상으로 한 연산호(軟珊瑚) 서식 해양보호구역 다이빙 관리제도의 지불의사액 분석

  • Kim, Miju (Marine Policy Research Division, Korea Maritime Institute) ;
  • Oh, Chi-Ok (Graduate School of Culture, Chonnam National University) ;
  • Nam, Jungho (Marine Policy Research Division, Korea Maritime Institute) ;
  • Hong, Jong Ho (Environmental Planning Institute/Institute for Sustainable Development, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University)
  • 김미주 (한국해양수산개발원 해양연구본부) ;
  • 오치옥 (전남대학교 문화전문대학원) ;
  • 남정호 (한국해양수산개발원 해양연구본부) ;
  • 홍종호 (서울대학교 환경대학원 환경계획연구소/지속가능발전연구소)
  • Received : 2021.12.16
  • Accepted : 2022.07.13
  • Published : 2022.09.30
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Abstract

A marine protected area (MPA) is a spatially designated section of the ocean where the biodiversity is high. Munseom MPA has a unique underwater landscape including soft coral, subtropical fish, and benthos, attracting many scuba divers. This paper intends to evaluate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the scuba diving management policy in the Munseom MPA. As a stated preference valuation method, a choice experiment was applied to assess divers' preferences with economic values for the policy. The attributes used in the study included zoning (temporal closure), conservation education, daily permit, soft coral area, and diving fee. We collected 333 questionnaires through online and field surveys and used 296 after excluding incomplete responses for the final data analysis. Study results show that a six-month closure, a decrease in soft coral habitat, and the diving fee were statistically significant. A positive coefficient with regard to the six-month closure variable indicates that divers preferred the policy, and the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) was estimated to be KRW 8,637 per person per dive. The aggregate WTP of KRW 233 million was obtained by multiplying the MWTP by the number of visiting divers per year. When comparing the levels of recreation specialization, more skilled divers preferred the management option. The results of this study will help predict the priority of management measures and the levels of acceptability among divers when diving management is implemented in Korea in the future. This study suggests that marine environmental policies need to consider divers as one of the important stakeholders for marine conservation.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 논문은 2020년 해양수산부 재원으로 해양수산과학기술진흥원의 지원을 받아 수행된 연구(생태계기반 해양공간분석 및 활용기술개발 20170325)입니다.

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