Willingness to Pay for Maintenance of a Nature Conservation Area: A Case of Mount Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Ecosystem services that are not traded on markets contribute to human wellbeing however their economic value is not well known and research is required to reveal it. This paper reports on a study of willingness to pay (WTP) for the maintenance of Mount Wilhelm by urban residents and socio-economic factors influencing it. The possibility of developing an ecotourism strategy that could generate benefits for local are discussed. The data were obtained from questionnaire and personal interviews of residents of Kundiawa, which is the capital of Simbu Province, Papua New Guinea. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logit regression model. The results showed that 92% of the respondents were willing to pay for maintenance of Mount Wilhelm and they would pay an average of 7.4 Papua New Guinea Kina (US$ 2.5) each year. The respondents who belonged to high income group had the highest WTP, followed by those who were willing to give out part of their land for conservation. Approximately 62% of the respondents would pay ≥10 Papua New Guinea Kina (PGK), which is equivalent to the amount charged as access fee to Mount Wilhelm by the locals living around it. The willingness to pay ≥10 PGK was influenced by income, education, importance of forests and willingness to give up land for conservation. The findings will contribute to land use planning and design of nature-based recreation that meets societal demands.

Policy Development in China’s Protected Scenic and Historic Areas

“…According to the policy analysis, it was found that there are many specific issues in the scenic and historic areas that need attention. Firstly, good operation and maintenance management models are very important to promote public willingness to protect scenic resources [118] and many countries have paid high attention to them [119][120][121]. Scenic and historic areas also need to pay more attention to maintenance management.…”

An Investigation of Willingness to Pay for Geopark Management and Conservation: A Case Study of Geotourists in the Greater China Region

“…Therefore, it is crucial and necessary to investigate the visitor-related factors underlying this monetary valuation of natural resource protection [34], which improves WTP estimation efficiency and achieves geopark management and conservation. First, previous studies examined the influences of demographic variables (i.e., age, income) on WTP in the context of resource conservation in ecotourism and geotourism [12,25,26]. However, existing surveys exhibit contradictory results in terms of explaining those relationships.…”

“…For instance. Ezebilo [12] indicated no significant relationships between age and WTP for ecotourism resource conservation, whilst a statistical coefficient of age was found to have positive effects on WTP in terms of protecting natural resources [5]. Income level was one of the most widely recognized predictors of WTP for nature conservation [17,35]; nonetheless, Patti [31] reported that income was irrelevant to WTP for environment protection in ecotourism.…”

“…Neither geological resources and services nor geopark conservation have explicitly marketed prices, implying that it is practically impossible to directly charge visitors for their use [12]. As a result, the values of those non-market goods were disregarded or assigned inappropriate weightings [13].…”

Determinants of tourists’ willingness to pay for conservation of ecotourism destinations: A case study of Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort, Nigeria

“…Previous studies indicate that sociodemographic variables (Kosz, 1996, Lindsey and Holmes, 2002, Bal and Mohanty, 2014, Ezebilo, 2016, and tourist behaviour (Kamri et al, 2017, Adamu et al, 2015 influenced WTP. Differences in people's WTP may be influenced by certain demographic and psychographic factors.…”