Using economic valuation to understand public perceptions of mangrove forests benefits in liberia

Perception of ecosystem benefits - the awareness and attitudes of the local communities about the benefits and conservation of mangroves, climate change, and ecosystem.. Hence, issues pe

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JOHN FORKPA KANNAH

USING ECONOMIC VALUATION TO UNDERSTAND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF MANGROVE FORESTS BENEFITS IN LIBERIA

MASTER THESIS

Topic allocation Decision 1006/QD-DHNT

Decision on establishing the

UNDERTAKING

By the candidate:

I declare that the thesis entitled Using Economic Valuation to Understand Public

Perceptions of Mangrove Forests Benefits in Liberia: is my original work The

work has not been presented elsewhere for assessment until the time this thesis is submitted

Nha Trang University, 25th June 1985

John Forkpa Kannah

my classmate Ali Swaleh Aboud for his brotherly advice I am also grateful to the moments of discouragement for making me strong to overcome especially when unnecessary conditions force one to be strong Most importantly, it is said that “the end of every matter is best” I can not submit my thesis without acknowledging the role of Hon Benjamin S Karmorh Sr for his kind assistance and tremendous support

in getting me an office space to sit and work And all of you that I can not mention by name, I am grateful

Many thanks go to my family especially my mother Yarmah K Gleh for their moral and financial support during my stay away from home Most importantly, my appreciation to my wife Johnette M Kannah for her continues prayers and encouragement for my success I also want to appreciate Sandra Samuel, Jallah Arku and Prince Gboneh, my research assistants, who helped me through my data collection which have graciously resulted in the production of this thesis

Finally, I would like to thank my fellow course-mates the entire Cohort II for their individual supports and valuable friendship during the time of this degree

Nha Trang University, 25th June 1985

John Forkpa Kannah

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS vii

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS viii

LIST OF FIGURES x

LIST OF GRAPHS xi

LIST OF APPENDIX xii

ABSTRACT xiii

CHAPTER ONE 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background Information 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem 3

1.3 Significance of the Study 4

1.4 Research Objectives 5

1.5 Research Questions 5

1.6 Research Hypothesis 5

CHAPTER TWO 6

LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.2 Mangrove and its Distribution 6

2.2 Socio-Economics importance of mangroves in western Liberia 7

2.3 Threats towards mangroves 7

2.4 Conservation Measures of mangroves 8

2.5 Climate Change issues and policy strategies 8

2.6 Contingent Valuation Method in analyzing perception 9

2.7 Assessment mechanism for the communities in and around the Lake Piso

Multiple Use Reserve in Grand Cape Mount County 10

MATERIALS AND METHODS 13

3.1 Study area 13

3.2 Sampling Design 14

3.3 Sampling Approach 15

3.4 Sample 16

3.5 Data Sources 17

3.6 Data Analysis 18

CHAPTER FOUR 19

RESULTS 19

4.1 Socio – demographic data 19

4.2 Climate Change Knowledge 21

4.3 Willingness to pay (WTP) to protect mangroves 22

4.4 Correlation between mangroves threats and willingness to pay to protect them 23 CHAPTER FIVE 25

5.1 Discussion 25

5.2 Conclusion 27

REFERENCES 28 APPENDIX A

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

BAU Business as Usual

BUR Bienniel Update Report

CV Contingent Valuation

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

FDA Forestry Development Authority

FGD Focus Group Discussion

IBAs Important Bird Areas

INC Initial National Communication

INDC Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

LD Liberian Dollars

LISGIS Liberia Institute of Statistic and Geo-information Services

MEA Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

NAPs National Adaptation Plans

NDC Nationally Determined Contribution

NGOs Non – Government Organization

SNC Second National Communication

UNDP United Nations Development Programme United

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

WTP Willingness to Pay

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

I Public – the people residing in and around the Lake Piso Multiple Use Reserve,

II Perception of ecosystem benefits - the awareness and attitudes of the local communities about the benefits and conservation of mangroves, climate change, and ecosystem

III Benefit- in terms of their well-being and the goods derived from mangrove forests,

IV “Mangroves are trees, shrubs, palms or ground ferns, generally exceeding more than half a meter in height, and which normally grow above mean sea level in the intertidal zones of marine coastal environments, or estuarine margins The term – mangrove can refer to either the constituent plants of tropical intertidal forest communities or to the community itself.” (Duke et al., 2009)

V Climate Change – is the change in existing climate patterns over a long period

VI “Contingent Valuation Method (CV) – is a survey - based approach use to put an economic value on goods that are not ordinary bought and sold in the marketplace (Carson, 2001)”

VII General public- are those who do not involve directly in fishing activity, charcoal production and fish drying/selling but are members of the community

LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: The total number of males and females distributed in eight villages 17 Table 4.1: Socio – demographic information of the respondents 20 Table 4.2: Basic knowledge of climate change and its connection to mangrove

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Map showing mangrove forest distribution from Lake Piso to Cape Palmas

(Source: Mangroves of West Africa) 07

Figure 2.2: Conceptual Framework for this study (the dashed shaped outline is not

directly covered in this study) 12

Figure 3.1: Map showing the study area in Grand Cape Mount County (Source; google

LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 4.1: Climate change awareness in (a) Have you heard about climate change? And

(b) If you have heard about climate change; how much do you know about Climate change? 21

Graph 4.2: Willingness to pay for the conservation of mangroves (n=174) 22

LIST OF APPENDIX Appendices I: Questionnaires A

ABSTRACT

Mangroves are very important in fish production, carbon storage and protection of coastal zones In Liberia, people along the coast heavily depend on mangroves for their subsistence and other livelihood activities such as fishing, farming and fuel wood gathering As a result there is serious threat post to this ecosystem The focus of this study was then to investigate the connection of the benefits and community peoples’ willingness to pay to protect mangroves and their knowledge of mangroves in climate change mitigation The study was done in eight villages within Lake Piso Multiple Use Reserve in Grand Cape Mount County Two sampling designs were used; semi – structured questionnaires to assess people’s knowledge and perception on the importance of mangroves and contingent valuation for willingness to pay for the protection of mangroves ecosystem Questionnaires were administered to 200 households of which 51.5% were male and 48.5% females through purposively and random sampling Data was then analyzed using simple Microsoft Excel 2013 The finding of this study shows that 30% of the participant had heard of climate change, but only 17.5% were able to define it correctly, which probably was due to few climate change awareness campaigns In addition, a majority of the respondents (83.5%) were not able to link the relationship between decline in mangroves and climate change However, 70% of the participants were willing to pay a one - year payment for the protection of mangrove but with the average rate bid of 1,061.50 LD

On the other hand, respondents who were willing to pay to protect mangrove forests were also those who were most negatively affected by a decline in mangrove due to climate change

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Information

Of all the woody plants mangroves are the only plants that survive in salty water remaining between the Ocean and filled in as a place of refuge and nursery grounds for some sea species Mangroves are critical assets for rural coastal economies and a source of food, medicine, timber, fuel and are mostly found along coastal frontiers (Alongi 2002) They are distinct plants that survive in salt water and remain between the land and sea in damp environmental conditions of the tropics and subtropics (Abuodha & Kairo, 2001)

Mangrove ecosystems are known as essential spawning grounds for juvenile fishes that are consumed by human and provide many food sources, such as algae, crustaceans and other macrofauna, to resident as well as transient creatures (Lugendo,

et al., 2007) They play a pivotal role in the provision of goods for human livelihood

and survival, for example, aquaculture, agriculture, forestry, protection against shoreline disintegration, fire-wood and building material, and other local subsistence

uses (Nagelkerken et al., 2008) They also protect coastal communities against floods,

tidal waves, helps to cleanse open water sources and bolsters recreation and tourism (Postel & Thompson, 2005) In addition, Mangrove ecosystems are a huge carbon sink regarding wood biomass and in organic sediments gathering (Ellison & Zouh, 2012) hence it is important in mitigating climate change

Despite the numerous benefits that mangrove ecosystems offer, the world is encountering the most devastating demolition of mangrove woodlands Around 35,500

square kilometers of the world's mangroves have been lost since 1980 (Abdullah et al.,

2014) These destructions are blamed directly or indirectly on anthropogenic activities leading to increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration thereby causing global warming, sea-level rise, high water events, storminess, precipitation, temperature, ocean

circulation patterns, health of functionally linked neighboring ecosystems and forest

degradation (Gilman et al., 2008) The loss of mangroves implies a grave loss of

biodiversity and wellbeing for several coastal fishing communities using mangroves

as a source of e.g food and timber (Erftemeiger & Buanluang 2002) Moreover, the loss decreases coastal water quality, dispense with fish and shellfish nursery environments, unfavorably influence nearby coastal environments, and wipe out a major asset for people that depend on mangroves for various goods and services This destruction can likewise discharge huge amounts of stored carbon and worsens the global temperature alterations and other environmental change patterns (Alongi, 2008)

In the year 1988, in western Liberia, Lake Piso flooded its banks and impacted Garwular District In addition, in 2012 the Government of Liberia pronounced the region as a "disaster zone" because of heavy precipitation which brought in floods both

in September and October that affected twenty communities and killed 10 individuals which in turn prompted the relocation of individuals from the communities (Sambolah, 2012) The scale of mangrove forests destruction is not known; neither the rate at which erosion occur nor data for tidal range and ocean currents (Wiles, 2005) leaving communities prone to extreme environmental risks Research has shown the environmental and financial significance of mangrove ecosystems as well as its defensive capacity Therefore, loss of mangroves is likely to accelerate the loss of lives and properties of coastal communities therein It is likewise demonstrated that coastal communities esteem the benefits derived from mangrove ecosystems connected to their prosperity (Badola et al 2012) As long as mangrove ecosystems are being threatened there is a need for protection and programs to rebuild these critical environments (Badola et al 2012) Not only are ecological assessments of such planting endeavors and strategies rare, investigations of local communities’ perceptions and valuation of planted areas are also limited (Ronnback et al 2007) In Liberia, most scientific studies have been geared toward the biological and ecological

discoveries of mangrove forests (Christie et al., 2007) and data on peoples’

perceptions of mangrove ecosystems are nearly non-existing

Besides, getting to know how individuals perceive and act towards mangrove ecosystems conservation is vital in light of the fact that choices about natural resource utilization and management are made in a social setting (Armah et al 2009) Presently, the issue of mangrove conservation and management has picked up lots of international concerns and there is a call for actions to secure this indispensable

biological systems around the world (Bojang et al., 2009) In fact, very little ecological

information on mangrove forest and climate change exist in Liberia (Tuagben 2012) Hence, issues pertaining local perception on the benefits of mangroves to build resilient, mitigating and adaptive strategies to meet climate change is limited especially in communities around and within the Lake Piso Multiple Use Reserve in Grand Cape Mount county (Sambolah, 2012) Mangroves are a key component to local livelihoods In this study, we seek to investigate the understanding of the local people about the benefits they derive from mangrove ecosystems to meet their needs and their attitudes toward the conservation and management of mangroves, knowledge of the impacts of harvesting mangroves, their willingness to pay for the protection of mangroves and their awareness of climate change

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Considerable conservation measures are in place to address loss of mangroves in Lake Piso However, there are still serious threats from ecosystem degradation to land conversion (Hahn et al 2014) The main threats are from anthropogenic factors such

as unsustainable agricultural practices, fuel wood and charcoal demands, mining and pollution (Hahn et al 2014) The high level of mangrove harvested for livelihoods, specifically for firewood, charcoal production, and poles in Western Liberia, threatens this important ecosystem (Tuagben 2012) As in other countries, the loss of mangrove forests could be attributed to lack of awareness in valuing the conservation of these ecosystems (Badola et al 2003) Low climate change knowledge and low prioritization of climate change at the policy level is also blamed for increasing

mangroves degradation and increasing vulnerabilities (EPA 2013) Despite the problems, majority of the studies had focused on the ecological and biodiversity part

of mangrove ecosystem in this area In line with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework, the following values of mangrove were identified, provisioning values, regulatory values and cultural values This tool is used to gather information on whether the communities have an understanding for and interest in the conservation of mangrove forests, its importance and knowledge about climate change and its link to mangrove decline An understanding of individual needs and aspirations

is key to the knowledge of local people’s attitude and perception of resource use, as

well as in resource conservation which have been suggested by Badola et al., (2012) in

mangrove forest management The study is divided into two main parts; the first part deals with willingness to pay and the second part deals with climate change awareness

of the communities by looking at more floods in mangrove declined areas and climate

change resulting to decline in mangrove areas

1.3 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will provide information that will contribute to coastal societies for which the mangrove ecosystem plays an important role Examples of ecosystem services are: Carbon sequestration, providing protection for coastal communities against floods, help to ameliorate climate, contribute to local economy, breeding grounds for juvenile marine’ species, scenery for relaxation, and comfort for tourists and a hub for scientific research The need to effectively manage and protect this important ecosystem cannot be over emphasized

Administrators, natural resource managers, community leaders, scientists, environmental NGOs might suggest a new ways to engage local people for the conservation of mangroves to improve programs and policies that will help reduce loss

of mangrove forests in western Liberia The study will contribute to the conservation

of mangrove forests as this study is probably the first of its kind to be carried out in these communities

1.4 Research Objectives

The study seeks to investigate the benefits local people derive from mangrove ecosystems and their attitude towards conservation and management of these important ecosystems To find the answers, the following objectives were proposed:

 To assess the climate change knowledge by the local people

 To determine the willingness to pay (WTP) by the local people for the

protection of mangroves

 To determine the correlation between threats against mangroves and people's willingness to pay

1.5 Research Questions

 What do local people know about Climate Change?

 Are local people WTP to protect mangroves?

 Is there a correlation between threats against mangroves and people's

willingness to pay?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

mangroves

people's willingness to pay

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.2 Mangrove and its Distribution

About six mangrove species have been discovered in Liberia; Acrostichum aureum,

Avicennia germinans, Conocarpus erectus, Rhizophora mangle, Rhizophora harrisonii

and Rhizophora racemosa and the most common species found is Rhizophora

racemosa (Corcoran et al., 2007) They are found along the shoreline of Liberia from

Cape Mesurado to Cape Palmas (Wilki 2007), with distribution shown (fig 1) at the edges of lagoons, riverbanks and river mouths Although, Liberia does not have extensive wetlands along its coasts and most mangroves occur at river mouths with some lesser development of lagoonal communities (Saenger & Bellan 1995) Mangroves cover an estimated area of about 202.6 km2 (Sambolah, 2012) In Cape Mount, mangroves are found covering a large portion of Lake Piso stretching to the boundary with Sierra Leone, making it the second largest mangrove forest area in Liberia after the Monrovia mangrove forest (Wilki 2007) These mangrove forests are suitable breeding places for a significant number of fish species, shrimps, molluscs, and crabs, and also important habitats for endangered species like the manatees, turtles, crocodiles and some migratory birds (Corcoran et al 2007)

Figure 2.1: Map showing mangrove forest distribution from Lake Piso to Cape

Palmas (Source: Mangroves of West Africa)

2.2 Socio-Economics importance of mangroves in western Liberia

It has been observed that coastal communities in Liberia on average obtain over 75%

of their income from natural resource utilization to include mangroves harvesting, fishing and other game from the wild (Tuagben 2012) This sets the basis of inquiring whether the communities are aware of the consequences of their actions They depend

on mangrove areas for their livelihoods and local trading of wood for energy, food, water, medicine, shelter, fuel wood, and charcoal production (Corcoran et al 2007) All of these activities can only be regulated and controlled if we understand their needs and aspirations especially the people in the Lake Piso Multiple Use Reserve area

2.3 Threats towards mangroves

In Africa, West Africa was reported to record the highest loss of mangrove forest area

(Armah et al., 2009), while Western Liberia was the highest in terms of mangrove

forests destruction for fuel wood and other livelihood uses (Tuagben 2012) It is also noted that the key threats and drivers attributed to the decline of mangrove forests in

Liberia include political instability, population increase and urban development

(Corcoran et al., 2007)

2.4 Conservation Measures of mangroves

In western Liberia especially Cape Mount , about 6,300 ha of mangroves have been preserved (Sambolah, 2012) Even with these efforts, mangroves are still harvested for firewood to smoke fish Also some studies have been conducted on mangrove

ecosystems and adjacent human populations (Christie et al., 2007) Mangrove areas of

high biodiversity are set aside as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and conservation

awareness programs of these sites are implemented (Piso et al., 2007) There are

numbers of studies on community livelihoods, forest use, and forest management all well compiled and available (Lebbie et al 2009) and with all of these studies and efforts to protect mangrove ecosystems, it is recorded in the western and central coastline of Liberia that all mangroves harvested were from conservation areas (Tuagben 2012)

2.5 Climate Change issues and policy strategies

In Liberia there are two seasons annually From November to March are the dry season and the rainy season from April to October Along the coast, the average rainfall is 4770 mm, going inland, the rainfall decrease to 2080 mm Temperature varies between 27o C to 32o C and 23o C to 28o C A twenty-nine- year data from 1953-1982 shows that there is almost equal wet and cold, and dry and warm years (Wiles 2005) Recent climate trends in Liberia show that average annual temperature has increased by 0.8oC since 1960 Liberia is data deficient on climate change, but available data shows significant increasing trend in the frequency of hot nights, but no increase in the number of hot days Liberia has seen decreasing annual average rainfall since 1960 However, it is not just easy to determine how long this trend will continue

because of the change in rainfall patterns in Liberia (O’Neill 2014: Mcsweeney et al.,

2010) Climate change mitigation strategy has formed part of the national development plan of Liberia called “Agenda for transformation”, and high on the agenda is to

reduce the destruction of mangrove forests, provide alternative livelihood for coastal communities, create awareness and protect important ecosystems (O’Neill 2014) Also, Liberia through the Environmental Protection Agency has embarked on a number of national efforts to combat climate change through different instruments such as; Initial National Communication (INC), Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), a draft Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), Second National communication (SNC) on-going, Bienniel Update Report (BUR) on -going, all with a commitment to reduce GHGs emissions by 15 percent below Business As Usual (BAU) (EPA,2015) Of recent, Liberia launched the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) (UNDP 2018) These measures would depend on involvement of communities

in the planning and implementation of such a plan Therefore, understanding the local communities’ perceptions of the benefits of mangrove and climate change is paramount

2.6 Contingent Valuation Method in analyzing perception

Contingent valuation (CV) study is an expressed desired strategy use to give people the chance to make an economic decision about a change in quantity or quality of a particular resource (Carson, 2012) This method has come under some level of criticism but it has some prove of being a good way to assess people understanding about the value of the environment (Hanemann, 1994) Carson 2012 additionally recognized that this method is not impeccable but when carryout properly can provide reliable information from the public showing their willingness and trade-off to obtain a well – define public goods More besides, it has be recommended to use CV when attempting to understand people’s perception or attitudes (Kotchen & Reiling, 2000) The contingent valuation method has been used as an alternative to mainstream integrated assessment models to gather information on mitigation and adaptation cost for decision making (Markantonis & Bithas, 2010) It has also been used to determine the total economic value of a project and estimated the monetary benefits arising from the use of a resource (Del Giudice & De Paola 2016) And it is widely used in many countries around the world in different fields and subjects There are a number of work

been done for the past decades on the economic valuation of mangrove forest in Asian (Camilee, 1999) As in Nigeria, it has been used to estimate the environmental service functions of mangroves using willingness to pay (Kesiena et al 2016)

The present study will ask questions about how people perceive mangrove forest benefits and use, their attitude towards conservation, knowledge about the impacts caused by harvesting of mangroves and knowledge of climate change This will contribute to the ongoing management and conservation of mangrove plan in Liberia,

which was emphasized by Badola et al., 2012 in India

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework (MA) is an important theory used

by many scientists to assess, project and manage the outputs of ecosystem services and how they contribute to human well-being It can be used to identify goods and services derived from ecosystems, and to analyze how public actions can lead to changes in ecosystems and the services they provide (S R Carpenter et al 2009) To arrive at this understanding, it is recommended to assess the perceptions of the public in finding ways to understand the benefits people derive from mangroves (Costanza et al 2014)

On this background, below is an assessment mechanism derived to assess the communities in Lake Piso

2.7 Assessment mechanism for the communities in and around the Lake Piso Multiple Use Reserve in Grand Cape Mount County

There is often a conflict between mangrove conservation and livelihood demand from mangrove products and land use in many of the developing countries (Ezebilo 2016) The effective conservation of mangroves may need local support and awareness campaign In Liberia, mangroves are mainly concentrated along the coastline where about 60% of the country’s population is found with high dependency on the natural resources for their livelihoods resulting into potential conflict between resource utilization by the communities and biodiversity conservation (Tuagben, 2012) Besides, there is (1) little information of mangroves ecosystem, (2) the current conflict between mangroves conservation and livelihood with the current conservation policies

is not well established This creates a need to understand people perception and climate change knowledge in support of mangroves conservation policies Perception

on the environment (López-mosquera & Sánchez 2012), income (Mamat et al 2013), age (Mamat et al 2013) and education (Bhandari & Heshmati 2010) are among the determinants of WTP

Figure 2.1 represent the conceptual framework for this study The framework was conceptualized from other related studies (MEA 2005, Carpenter et al 2006, and Stephen R Carpenter et al 2009) Poor livelihood activities from the mangroves dependent community threaten the mangrove and its ecosystems Studies have shown that the degradation of mangroves is mostly attributed to firewood gathering (Tuagben, 2012) Thus the study included the aspects of livelihood to understand how these communities depend on mangroves for their livelihoods If their livelihood dependency is high, it might lead to decrease in mangroves, and if their dependency is low it might lead to the protection of mangroves in their areas On the hand, climate change knowledge can either result to the protection or destruction of mangroves That

is, if there is low level of climate change knowledge, it means the poor livelihood activities aspects may increase and that could threaten mangroves And if knowledge level is high, people attitudes will change and the understanding of the connection between climate change and mangroves will be high This will increase the support in the conservation of mangroves People willingness to pay in supporting the conservation of mangroves is also an important aspect to understand their perception

on conservation If their willingness is high, it means they favor conservation and if their willingness to pay is low, it means conservation is not favor by the community But if conservation is well supported by the community, it will lead to increase in climate change mitigation and adaptation capacity

Figure 2.2: Conceptual Framework for this study (the dashed shaped outline is not

directly covered in this study)

Willingness to

Pay (WTP) Conservation

Climate Change Knowledge

Livelihood

Dependency Mangroves

Mitigation and Adaptation to climate change

CHAPTER THREE MATERIALS AND METHODS 3.1 Study area

The study sampled eight villages within Grand Cape Mount County It is located in Western Liberia It is bordering Sierra Leone and lies within latitudes 60°30’ – 7°00’ and Longitudes 10°55’ – 11°30’ The location and distribution of the study sites are presented in figure 3.1 below Lake Piso is surrounded by mangroves from North, South, and East to West Villages were selected from the North, South, East and West and it was also based on their close proximity to mangrove forest

Figure 3.1: Map showing the study area in Grand Cape Mount County (Source;

Google earth)

3.2 Sampling Design

The study focused on the direct users of mangrove and the general public Direct users were those who use mangroves as source of livelihood such as fishermen, fish sellers, and charcoal producers The general public was those who do not involve directly in fishing activity, charcoal production and fish drying/selling but are members of the community The focus group discussion (FGD) was held once in each of the eight villages to gather preliminary information and book appointments and arrange dates with targeted respondents to be interviewed It also acted as the pre - survey of the study The information from FGD helped in finalizing the questionnaire design by considering people’s understanding of the questions The study used Contingent valuation CV is a method This method is use to test people willingness to forego their economic activities from a particular area or resource just to assure that the area or the resource is protected even if he or she or another person else will stop their activities (Carson, 2012) However, it is recommended that design of a CV should be clear stating correctly what the respondent is foregoing (Zainudin et al., 2016) And this is fulfilled in the questionnaire Appendix 1 just before the research questions The contingent valuation exercise was designed and used to elicit individual willingness to pay (WTP) and semi-structured questionnaire written in English was designed in line with the conceptual framework figure.2, to understand local people’s willingness to pay and their awareness of climate change and their perception on the importance of mangroves The design of the questionnaire was guided by previous studies such as those by Sambolah, (2012), Christie et al., (2007) and Piso et al., (2007) and the questionnaire is presented in appendix I It contained both qualitative and quantitative questions The quantitative parts encompassed the age, gender and residential period

of the respondents, and the willingness to pay question, while the qualitative parts covered people’s awareness of climate change and the relationship between willing to pay and climate change awareness Questionnaire was divided into four parts with a total of eighteen structured multiple, binary or open-ended questions (Appendix 1)

3.3 Sampling Approach

Figure 3.2: Pictures showing meeting with local chiefs, interview and sight

spotting of the mangrove area

Field work took place between July and November 2017 On the first week of July, the study began by engaging authorities of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Environmental protection Agency (EPA), and the National police for their information and approval to meet with local county officials followed by the Focus Group Discussion to select participants (Fig 3.2)

In each of the community, one focus group discussion was held and the community members were brought together in a Town hall with the help of the local leaders However, in the focus group discussion the used systematic random samplings approach The sample was first stratified in two categories; (1) Charcoal producers, fishermen, fish sellers as direct users and (2) general public who were members of the community as indirect users of mangrove forests Then random sampling was applied

to select the respondents from the stratum through a raffle draw The raffle draw was administered to both groups separately and those selected was based on gender, age (18 years and above), residency, and that the respondents have lived in the community

for at least 6 months or more at the time of the survey The selection of respondents was based on the age 18 and at the age, we believe that a person has some knowledge about the environment and their community Moreover, according to the laws of Liberia, a person is considered mature once he or she reaches the age 18 (GoL, 2011)

Figure 3.3: A pictorial showing a focus group discussion in a Town hall to select

respondents

3.4 Sample

The sample size was drawn from 13,033 households Due to budgetary constraints and dispersed distribution of the population along the lake, the study considered 200 households (Kothari 2004) Therefore, questionnaire was administered to 200 respondents within the eight studied villages Each respondent was chosen from a household For the sake of gender balance, the study considered both male and female selection in alternative households The sample size per each study site was not evenly collected due to the population of the villages and the number of people who were actually present at time of data collection and largely due to the 2017 presidential and representative elections The number of household interviews per village/town is presented in table 3.1

Table 3.1: The total number of males and females distributed in eight villages

The study employed both secondary and primary data source The secondary data was

on national demographic variables and the population and number of households in the studied areas was gathered from the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) This was useful in guiding the study on the selection of participant

as described in section 3.4 above It was also helpful in understanding the representativeness of the sample as described in table 4.1 Primary data was acquired

by the interviews between the participants and the interviewer, guided by the questionnaire (annex 1)