The Economic Benefits of the Dokdo Seals Restoration Project in Korea: A Contingent Valuation Study

Seul-Ye Lim,Se-Jun Jin,Seung-Hoon Yoo

doi:10.3390/su9060968

Seul-Ye Lim, Se-Jun Jin + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060968

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Abstract

Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus), especially those that live in Dokdo, Korea, represent an endangered species in Korea. Thus, the government is considering the implementation of the Dokdo Seals (DS) restoration project. This article looks at the economic benefits for implementing the project, which includes making habitats for the DS, such as an artificial sea ranch, and training DS rescued from fishing nets and wounded in the wild to adapt to the wild so that they can be released into the Dokdo Sea. To this end, we looked at the willingness to pay (WTP) for the implementation of the project by conducting a contingent valuation (CV) survey of 1000 Korean households. We employed a one-and-one-half-bounded dichotomous choice question format. Furthermore, we used a spike model to model the WTP responses with zero observations. The mean yearly WTP for the project implementation was computed to be KRW 4923 (USD 4.86) for next ten years per household, which is statistically significant at the 1% level. The national annual value amounts to KRW 90.9 billion (USD 89.8 million). This value can be taken as an indication of the economic benefits of restoring the endangered species.

Highlights

Public interest in endangered species and biodiversity conservation has been increasing all over the world [1,2,3]
The estimate for the spike is 0.4562, which is the same as the percentage of the sample having zero willingness to pay (WTP) responses (450 households). This demonstrates that the spike model applied here depicts the sample well
We found that the mean additional WTP is KRW 4923 (USD 4.86) per household, and that this is statistically significant at the 1% level

Summary

Introduction

Public interest in endangered species and biodiversity conservation has been increasing all over the world [1,2,3]. Many developed countries have tried to protect endangered species and conserve biodiversity through legislation. The United States manages about 2000 endangered and threatened animal and plant species under the Endangered Species Act. The Korea Ministry of Environment has designated 246 species as endangered and has sought to preserve them. The main focus has been on land wildlife and less attention has been paid to marine endangered species. The Korea Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) has recently promulgated legislation and taken measures to conserve marine endangered species

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