Are Sharks Worth More Alive Than Dead? A Stated Preference Study on Shark Ecotourism in Costa Rica.
| Autor: | Mgr. Alicia Maria Berrios |
|---|---|
| Rok: | 2017 - zimní |
| Vedoucí: | Mgr. Milan Ščasný PhD. |
| Konzultant: | |
| Typ práce: | Diplomová MEF |
| Jazyk: | Anglicky |
| Stránky: | 115 |
| Ocenění: | |
| Odkaz: | https://is.cuni.cz/webapps/zzp/detail/185600/ |
| Abstrakt: | In this study, we aim at estimating the benefits for conserving shark populations in Costa Rica. In the first approach, we use a discrete choice experiment to elicit tourists’ preferences for five tourism-related attributes when one of them is shark ecotourism. In the second apparoch, we estimate the willingness-to-pay for conserving three threatened-hammerhead shark species from a double-bounded dichotomous choice question. Preferences are elicited through the original survey that was carried out on a sample representative of the general tourist population (n=801). When tourism infrastructure and environmental-related attributes were valued within the discrete choice experiments, we found that tourists are willing to pay most for beach and city tourism infrastructure, $0.86 and $1.04, respectively, for each percentage point of improvement, while the same improvement in shark populations is worth about $0.35 and the willingness to pay for conserving sea turtles and coral reefs is not different from zero. There is, however, a large heterogeneity in tourists’ preferences even for conserving sea turtles or sharks. Our results imply that tourists are willing to pay about $35 to avoid the full extinction of shark populations. From three separate contingent valuation questions, we found that tourists were willing to pay $56 to conserve smooth hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena), $53 for scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini), and $46 for great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran). Considering the annual tourist population, we found that the benefits of shark conservation, i.e. keeping a sharks alive, greatly exceed the revenues from selling shark products on the seafood market. Our study provides the first estimate of shark conservation benefits in Costa Rica, which is the key input for the ongoing conservation effort to recover and stabilize shark populations. |
