Assessing Tradeoffs between Development and Conservation: A Case of Land Use Change in a National Park of Korea

Abstract

Protected areas are places that provide diverse ecosystem services, including cultural ecosystem services. At the same time, the development and unbalanced use of natural resources in protected areas often create environmental threats and social conflicts. This study estimates the economic value of environmental consequences derived from the construction of an airport in a national park in Korea. We employ a discrete choice experiment to assess economic values and consider a key part of the tradeoffs derived from the airport construction at Heuksan Island of Dadohae Marine National Park in Korea. The results show that social benefits related to improved accessibility and tourism opportunities would be generated but at substantial costs resulting from environmental degradation and the reduction in bird populations. A segmentation analysis also reveals that heterogeneous preferences exist based on variables reflecting individuals’ visit experiences and trust in the government. The findings indicate that considering environmental impacts is important when evaluating the feasibility of a development project in a protected area.

Managing Tourism and Environment—Trail Erosion, Thresholds of Potential Concern and Limits of Acceptable Change

“…In addition, the larger-scale repercussions of climate change are being superimposed on existing human-generated habitat loss and animal and plant extinctions. Decision-making for conservation has thus become increasingly complex [67,83]. These broader issues prompt rising concern about identifying the most effective management structures for sustaining biophysical environments in heavily utilised protected areas suffering from inadequate resourcing.…”