Estimating visitors' willingness to pay for a conservation fund: sustainable financing approach in protected areas in Ethiopia
| Autor: | Sintayehu Aynalem Aseres, Raminder Kaur Sira |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Sustainable financing Context (language use) Conservation Article Social sciences Tourism 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Willingness to pay Nature conservation Bale Mountains National Park lcsh:Social sciences (General) lcsh:Science (General) Tourism economics Finance Ecotourism Contingent valuation Multidisciplinary Tourism management business.industry National park Subsidy Livelihood Conservation fund Protected areas 030104 developmental biology Contingent valuation method lcsh:H1-99 business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery lcsh:Q1-390 Balance of nature |
| Zdroj: | Heliyon Heliyon, Vol 6, Iss 8, Pp e04500-(2020) |
| ISSN: | 2405-8440 |
| Popis: | An increasing number of protected areas (PAs) are being established in many countries to conserve and preserve the wildlife species and to maintain earth's ecological balance, but in emerging economies such as Ethiopia, PAs are currently confronted with inadequate conservation funding that makes it tough to protect the remaining biodiversity. PAs, therefore try to use other financial means such as ecotourism to subsidize their financial shortage and nourishes the nexus between conservation and development. Estimation of visitors' willingness to pay (WTP) would be useful to craft strategies to strengthen the self-financing capability of PAs and hence realizing environmental and livelihood goals. In this study, the visitors' WTP for the proposed conservation fund in the context of Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) was estimated using a contingent valuation method. The finding indicated that 75% of visitors were willing to pay a conservation fee. The mean WTP was estimated to be US$7.40 for foreign visitors and US$1.00 for domestic visitors. The finding suggests that the implementation of conservation fee in addition to the existing entry fee helps to improve the long-term sustainable financing of PAs. Protected areas, Bale Mountains National Park, Conservation, Conservation fund, Ecotourism, Contingent valuation method, Sustainable financing, Willingness to pay; Nature conservation; Social sciences; Tourism; Tourism management; Tourism economics |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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