Using Internet Surveys to Estimate Visitors’ Willingness to Pay for Coral Reef Conservation in the Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Abstract

Without appropriate conservation action, coral reefs globally continue to degrade, causing declines in economic value. Therefore, their local conservation and quantifying its benefits become increasingly important. However, accurately measuring these values remains expensive or complicated. Leveraging digital survey tools, an interdisciplinary on-line survey was created to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for coral reef conservation using pictures and ecological data. Using the contingent valuation method we estimate current values as well as changes in value due to restoration or degradation for coral ecosystems in the Kenting National Park (KNP) in Taiwan. Results suggest that conserving degraded coral reef ecosystems leads to larger gains in value than healthier ones. Average WTP estimates a non-market economic value of 680 million US$ per year for the whole KNP marine area. Despite potential self-reporting bias and limits on sample size, these values appear consistent with similar studies and suggest future economic sampling strategies for KNP.