Economic Valuation of Nature Area of Sultan Ismail Petra Ecosystem Protection Park (Pergau Lake), Malaysia

Abstract

The value of protected natural environments is important for policy-making in a world of increasingly scarce natural resources. The natural environment includes protected areas such as forest reserves and lake parks which are also areas with high potential for ecotourism. The increasing demand for tourism has led to the development of infrastructure and facilities, particularly the development for ecotourism. However, the economic benefits of natural ecotourism areas are not readily quantified because of the unavailable market price. This is true for the forest and lake resources where the potential and realised benefits for recreation purposes are not valuated. If valuation is not done, the allocation of the resources cannot be optimised and the natural resources may be converted for other purposes. Quantifying the economic value of natural environment resources can show where goods and services are currently underpriced by the market. It can also indicate whether there is potential to develop new markets, to charge prices for the use of natural resources, or to capture natural resource benefits in financial terms. Other than generating revenue, prices and market measures can provide an effective means of regulating the demand for resources and of providing incentives for sustainable management. The purpose of the study is to estimate the value of Sultan Ismail Petra Ecosystem Protection Park (Pergau Lake), in Malaysia, through non-users’ willingness to pay (WTP). In this study, the dichotomous-choice contingent-valuation method (CVM) was employed to estimate the economic value of conserving the park through face-to-face interviews. The WTP was elicited from a total of 268 respondents. The respondents were asked whether they would be willing to contribute a conservation fee to preserve the park as a recreational site. The average WTP for all respondents was estimated to range between RM111.22 and RM293.12 annually, which translates to a contribution of between RM11.22 million and RM29.58 million in aggregate for the year 2019.

Evaluating Ecotourism for the Establishment of Fraser’s Hill State Park

“…As for visitor' WTP (general public and total respondent perspective), results show that bid price (BID1) are the only variable that significant at 5% level of significant. This result is similar with study done by (Mamat et al, 2020;Hassin et al, 2020). Furthermore, for local community perspective shows that visitor's WTP are influenced significantly at 5% by variable age and education level which these results can be supported by others study done by Kamaludin & Azlina (2020); Kamri (2013); Zaiton et al (2019) which the results shows that age and education gave impact on their studies.…”

“…The CVM method was employed to estimate the economic value through face-to-face interviews. Results show that bid price, government allocation budget, and importance of environmental policy are significant towards WTP (Mamat et al, 2020).…”

Economic Valuation of Forest Ecosystem for Watershed Services in Kelantan, Malaysia

“…Unlike timber, this service does not have a price and is not traded in the market. As stated by [3], estimating the economic value of natural resources might reveal areas of the market where goods and services are presently underpriced. Various techniques to quantify the economic value of environmental goods and services.…”

Οικονομική Αποτίμηση Αστικών Και Περιβαλλοντικών Πάρκων Στην Ελλάδα

“…Αρκετές είναι οι μελέτες που πραγματοποιήθηκαν στην Μαλαισία προκειμένου να εξάγουν το ποσό που ήταν πρόθυμα τα άτομα να διαθέσουν για πάρκα και προστατευόμενες περιοχές(Kamri, 2013;Kamri et al, 2017;Mamat et al, 2020;Mojiol et al, 2017;Hilmi and Mojiol, 2017).ΟKamri (2013) μελέτησε την προθυμία των επισκεπτών να πληρώσουν για τη διατήρηση του Εθνικού Πάρκου Gunung Gading στο Sarawak, το οποίο φιλοξενεί το μεγαλύτερο λουλούδι, Rafflesia. Η μέση προθυμία των επισκεπτών για πληρωμή προκειμένου να διατηρηθεί το πάρκο βρέθηκε ίση με RM10,63.…”

“…είναι η εξαρτημένη μεταβλητή που προσδιορίζεται από τις ανεξάρτητες μεταβλητές (X ji )(Χάλκος, 2011). Πληθώρα ερευνών χρησιμοποίησαν την μέθοδο OLS(Ghosh and Mondal, 2013;Mamat et al, 2020;Ashfaq et al, 2017;Kamri et al, 2017;Martin-Lopez et al, 2007) …”