Factors determining tourist’s willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation in ba vi national park ha noi viet nam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY FOREST RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FACULTY STUDENT THESIS FACTORS DETERMINING TOURIST’S WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY FOREST RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FACULTY

STUDENT THESIS

FACTORS DETERMINING TOURIST’S WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN BA VI NATIONAL

PARK, HA NOI, VIET NAM

Student name: Le Bach Yen Student ID: 1453091271

Class: K59 Natural Resources Management Course: 2014-2018

Major: Natural resources management

Advanced Education Program Developed in Collaboration with Colorado State University, USA

Supervisor: Ass.Prof.Tran Quang Bao

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT 2

CHAPTER1.INTRODUCTIONANDOBJECTIVES 3

1 Introduction 3

2 Goal and objectives 6

2.1 Goal 6

2.2 Objectives 6

3 General information about Ba Vi National Park 7

3.1 Natural Condition 7

3.2 Function of National Park 9

3.3.Biodiversity value: 10

3.4 Tourism status 10

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 12

2.1.Contingent valuation method 12

2.2 Data collection 12

2.3 Data analysis 15

CHAPTER 3.RESULTS 19

3.1 Socio-demographic characteristics of variables 19

3.2 Information related to the National Park 21

3.3 Estimated Travel costs of Visitors 25

3.4 Factors effecting to visitor‟s willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation 25

3.4.1 The correlation between the surveyed factors and visitor‟s willingness to pay determination 25

3.4.2 The factors influencing to the determination of visitor‟s willingness to pay 26

3.5 Visitor‟s willingness to pay 28

CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSIONS 32

4.2 Factors influencing willingness to pay decision for biodiversity conservation 32

4.3 Biodiversity and tourism benefits 35

4.4 Suggestions 36

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 37

5.1 Conclusions 37

5.2 Limitations 38

REFERENCES 39

APPENDIX 41

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 List of dependence variables 14

Table 2 Socio-demographic characteristics of the visitors 20

Table 3 Amount of people and time to stay in national park 22

Table 4 Satisfaction level of tourists about national park's values 24

Table 5 Significant correlation of factors to the decision of visitor‟s willingness to pay 26

Table 6 Classification table of predicting of determination of visitor‟s willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation 27

Table 7 Factors affect to determination of visitors willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation 27

Table 8 Income and willingness to pay Cross tabulation 30

Table 9 Average willingness to pay 31

Table 10.Ranking of influential factors 34

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Location of Ba Vi National Park 7

Figure 2 Total tourist arrivals and revenue of Ba Vi national park 11

Figure 3 Frequency of visit 21

Figure 4 Purpose of the trip 21

Figure 5 Visitor‟s interest in national park‟s values 23

Figure 6 Tourists assess biodiversity conservation 24

Figure 7 Visitors assess ticket cost 25

Figure 8 Proportion of agreement to pay 28

Figure 9 Reasons for unwillingness to pay 29

Figure 10 Willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation 31

Figure 1 Ba Vi national park 7

Figure 2 Total tourist arrivals and revenue of Ba Vi national park 11

Figure 3 Frequency of visit 21

Figure 4 Purpose of the trip 21

Figure 5 Visitor‟s interest in national park‟s values 23

Figure 6 Tourists assess biodiversity conservation 24

Figure 7 Visitors assess ticket cost 25

Figure 8 Proportion of agreement to pay 28

Figure 9 Reasons for unwillingness to pay 29

Figure 10 Willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation 31

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Ass.Prof.Tran Quang Bao for his valuable guidance, suggestions and encouragement

The idea of developing this thesis is original from the reality of developing tourism rapidly in Ba

Vi National Park That is great opportunity for me to do my study “Factors determining visitor‟s willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation” I am thankful to Dr.Tran Minh Tuan-Head of science and international cooperation and Mrs.Chu Le Thuy-Administrative manager helped me a lot when I practiced and collected data when I was in Ba Vi National Park

Finally, I would like to offer my regard to all person and Vietnam National University of Forestry directly or indirectly support me during I do this study

ABSTRACT

Despite the fact that there has been a significant increase in interest in the sustainable management of protected areas, many still fail to meet conservation goals Considering that the availability of adequate financial resources and the general public‟s interest toward environmental conservation both play such an important role in the successful performance

of protected areas, it is of great importance to investigate local residents‟ and tourist‟ attitudes and perceptions regarding protected areas This will help gain knowledge of the level of financial and social support they would be willing to give to environmental protection and biodiversity conservation in protected areas In recent years, Ba Vi National Park attracts thousands of visitors each year, however the finance of National Park has been lacking To elicit attitudes and perceptions of visitors regarding protected areas, as well as their willingness to pay (WTP) for biodiversity protection, a survey was carried out inside National Park Results indicated that tourists have higher awareness of the importance of the protected area, exhibit greater appreciation of the existence of the park and are willing ness

to pay quite high was VND 22,140(US$1.08) each person beside entrance fees to support conservation Finding 3 factors affect to willingness to pay and total values by using Contingent Valuation Method (CVM)

CHAPTER1 INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

1 Introduction

In adopting the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, by decision X/2, the Conference

of the Parties recognized that bringing about meaningful changes to the status of biodiversity was

a long-term endeavor Thus, a vision for 2050 was adopted as part of the Strategic Plan The 2050 Vision is “Living in harmony with nature” where “by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people”(CBD,2011) However, degradation of global biodiversity resources in recent times still is the greatest concern, thus increasing awareness of the significance of these resources in the stability of ecosystem functions is important task of each country It is believed that the biodiversity resources form the basis for sustainable natural functions, and also provide potential for human use, which include the opportunity for scientific research as well as recreational benefit, such as ecotourism (Nijkamp, Vindigni, and nunes, 2008)

Tourism and biodiversity are closely linked both in terms of impacts and dependency Many types of tourism rely directly on ecosystem services and biodiversity (ecotourism, agri-tourism, wellness tourism, adventure tourism, etc.) Tourism uses recreational services and supply services provided by ecosystems Tourists are looking for cultural and environmental authenticity, contact with local communities and learning about flora, fauna, ecosystems and their conservation (European Comission, 2010) On the other hand, too many tourists, infrastructures, and services can have a negative, degrading effect on biodiversity that mean the development of tourism requires every tourism places carefully planning and management to avoid and reduce

negative impacts on biodiversity Therefore, tourism has a strong effect to biodiversity loss as well as a role in its conservation

Vietnam is one of the world‟s most biologically diverse countries, with 10 percent of the world‟s mammal, bird and fish species in habitation Forty percent of local plant species exist only in Vietnam Diverse ecosystems provide critical goods and services to the Vietnamese people through the provisioning of ecosystem services, including clean water, soil stability, buffers against storms and climate shocks, and a basis for tourism (USAID, 2018).Vietnam has

33 national parks and 174 Protected Areas, however, Vietnam also is hot pot of the loss of biodiversity and population has continued to grow making Vietnam one of the most densely populated countries in Asia The increase in population density, along with deforestation and environmental degradation, has created a real crisis in upland agriculture areas, leading to serious degradation of ecosystems and natural resources under the pressure of free and unplanned migration, especially the Central Highlands is an example Due to the lack of land and capital, poor people have to overexploit land and natural resources in order to support their lives, rapidly degrading these resources and leading to the decline of biodiversity Shifting cultivation practices have caused the loss of forests, degradation of land, and creation of vast barren areas (CBD-Vietnam, 2014)

Therefore, finding solutions create potential finance sources which can be efficiency for restoring biodiversity, sustainable forest protection and management as well as biodiversity conservation In the last few decades, many measurement methods have been proposed to assign value to ecosystem services (Christie et al.2012) Costanza et al estimated the value of global annual ecosystem services at about US$33 trillion (at1995 values) (1997, cited in Costanza et al.2014) In 2011, total global ecosystem services were estimated at US$145 trillion/year (at 2007

values) (Costanza et al.2014) At the local level, the monetary value of ecosystem services is useful for decision makers evaluating policies on biodiversity conservation (Thi Ha Thu Le et al,2016) Some research in Vietnam estimated recreational value of coral reefs surrounding the Hon Mun Islands ranged from US$8.7 million to US$17.9 million (Pham & Tran2004) The total monetary value of improving wetlands at Vietnam‟s Tram Chim National Park was estimated in three large cities at US$5.4 million (Do & Bennett2007) In 2013, Thi Ha Thu Le et al estimated the total value stated by the public amounted to approximately US$1.63 million/year for biodiversity conservation (c VND35.045 billion) and US$1 million for O.tamdaoensis protection (c VND21.5 billion)

Ba Vi National Park is one of the most National Park has rich biodiversity in Vietnam It

is the home to 1201 species of vascular plant belonging to 649 genera and 160 families, vertebrate animals in Ba Vi National Park recorded 342 species, 2 classes of reptiles and amphibians National Park attracts tourists by famous historical places such as ancient church, orphanage, motels of senior French officials and French prison ruins ,etc In addition, inside Ba

Vi National Park has many tourism places which have leased including natural forests, plantations and bare land for tourism companies The development of tourism in National Parkput the pressure on biodiversity conservation cause finance from government cannot provide regularly, so this study offers important insights for policy makers interested in involving people

in biodiversity conservation and raising social awareness of ecosystem services as well as create

an avenue for enhancing revenue for conservation in the National Park

2 Goal and objectives

2.1 Goal

- The interest of this paper is centered on examining the significant determinants of visitors‟ willingness to pay for conservation in Ba Vi National Park, so as to identify the potentially important market segment from the visitors that would contribute to higher revenue for the development of sustainable tourism in the national park

2.2 Objectives

- Identify people's perceptions and attitudes towards biodiversity conservation

- Study the factors influencing willingness to accept for biodiversity conservation

- Determine whether people are willing to pay and how much they pay for biodiversity conservation

Source: Google map

3 General information about Ba Vi National Park

3.1 Natural Condition

a Geographic location

Ba Vi National Parkestablished in 1991 and located in 60 km west of center Hanoi, Ba Vi National Parkis one of nature reserve, visit and entertainment zone in Tan Linh commune, Ba Vi district, Ha Noi

Geographic coordinates: From 21 degrees 01 'to 21 degrees 07' north latitude and 105 degrees 16 'to 105 degrees 25' east longitude

Source: VuonquocgiaBaVi cited by Vncreature

Figure 1 Location of Ba Vi National Park

+ The west borders with communes of Khanh Thuong, Minh Quang, Ba Vi district, Hanoi and Phu Minh commune, Ky Son district, Hoa Binh province

- The total natural area until May 2008 is 10,782.7 ha

- The total area of Ba Vi National Parknow is 11,372 ha

b Topographic

Ba Vi is a medium mountain, low mountains and midland adjacent to the mountainous region Mountain ranges consist of consecutive mountains, prominent as the peaks such as Mount Vua is 1.296 m high, Vien Tau peak 1,227 m, Ngoc Hoa peak 1,131 m, Vien Nam peak 1,012 m It is divided by streams and valleys and narrow streams

semi-The direction of the two mountains in the direction of northwest - southeast, the height of the two mountains gradually decreasing around to create a number of terrains characteristic of the peaks, the waves rolling waves connecting two blocks together The slopes of the mountains of

Ba Vet and South Vietnam are asymmetrical, with the western slope steeply sloping The main

slope gradually decreases in the direction of North East - South West, the average slope > 25º Many places have high slope > 35º

c Climate

According to the meteorological and hydrographic observations, in recent years, Ba Vi, Luong Son and Cai Son districts have reported that the Ba Vi area has an annual average temperature of 23.4ºC In the lowlands, the lowest temperature drops to 2.7ºC; maximum temperature is up to 42ºC At the height of 400m, the annual average temperature is 20.6ºC; From

a height of 1,000 m and above, the temperature is only 16ºC The absolute low temperature can

be down to 0.2ºC Absolute high temperature 33.1ºC Annual rainfall is 2,500mm, unevenly distributed throughout the year, concentrating in July, August Humidity 86.1% The lowland usually dry in January, December Winter with the North wind with a frequency of > 40% South-East wind with frequency of 25% and Southwest direction

3.2 Function of National Park

Ba Vi National Park is a scientific and economic unit with the function of planting, preserving and restoring natural resources, historical relics, scientific research in combination

with visit, study and travel:

 To conserve the entire natural ecosystem intact of the forbidden forest

 New planting, restoration, forest protection, precious and rare genetic resources, special forest and historical and cultural relics

 Organize experimental research, basic research for the purpose of conservation

 Organizing scientific services, vocational education and tourism

3.3.Biodiversity value:

Ba Vi National Park has three types of forest: tropical evergreen moist rain forest; evergreen broadleaf and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved lowland evergreen broad-leaved lowland evergreen forest Mount Ba Vi with two high belt so the flora here is quite rich and diverse which has 1201 vascular plant species belonging to 649 genera and 160 families According to the latest addition survey in 2008, the Vertebrate Zooplankton Complex in Ba Vi National Park has 342 species recorded In particular, there are 3 endemic species and 66 rare species Of the 342 species recorded, 23 species have been sampled or stored locally, 141 are observed in the field and 183 species are collected from interviews with hunters or gathered through existing records

semi-3.4 Tourism status

Ba Vi National Park has a fresh, cool climate and many beautiful natural sceneries with many streams originating from the Ba Vi mountain all year round, flowing like Thien Son - Suoi Ngai, Ao Vua, Khoang Xanh, Tien Sa Lake There are many historical and cultural relics such as Thuong Temple, Trung Temple, Temple of Uncle Ho, Bao Thien Tower, Ngoc Hoa Cave These conditions created Ba Vi National Park has long been an ideal mountain resort of the country In addition, Ba Vi National Park is co-operating with two companies: Pico Vietnam-Ba

Vi Resort (37.3 ha); CFTD Technology Development Company (60.5 ha) in organizing tourism and accommodation for tourist

The number of tourists to Ba Vi National Parkhas increased sharply in recent years, with an average growth rate of 38,7% in the period 2014-2017

In 2017, the National Parkreceived 379,838 visitors (including 344,375 domestic and 3,062 international visitors) Estimated revenue reached 14,592,249,000VND The number of visitors and revenue of Ba Vi National Parkfor the period 2014-2017 is presented in figure 2

Total visitors 149.159 216.050 347.737 379.838 Total revenue(VND

0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0 10,0 12,0 14,0 16,0

0 50.000 100.000 150.000 200.000 250.000 300.000 350.000 400.000

Source: Ba Vi National Park

Figure 2 Total tourist arrivals and revenue of Ba Vi national park

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

2.1.Contingent valuation method

This study employs the CVM, the most frequently applied method in valuing environment components and biodiversity attributes In general, public goods are not excludable and not rivals, so a limitation in valuing public goods is that they cannot be traded in a formal market with a specific price However, the CVM is generally limited as a result of its reliance on individuals‟ stated WTP under a given hypothetical market scenario that does not elicit people‟s responses in real life (Lee & Mjelde2007)

The contingent valuation method (CVM) was first introduced by Ciriacy and Wantrup in 1947 for estimating the side effects of soil erosion (Venkatachalam, 2004) The CVM

is based on the concepts of the willingness to pay (WTP) a certain amount in order for the individual to maximize his/her utility or willingness to accept (WTA) compensation so as to improve the utility as a result of damage, or absence of the public good The attention of CVM studies has in the recent past shifted from valuation of the environmental damage to the valuation

of environmental protection (Adamu, et al ,2015) It is widely used as an effective policy tool in protected area management and biodiversity conservation (Baralet al., 2008)

2.2 Data collection

Secondary data

The secondary data about biodiversity conservation and tourism status used in this article

is mainly collected from Science and international cooperation department, administrative manager as well as from the website of Ba Vi National Park

Primary data

a Study location: Interviewed data was collected from visitors at 400m, 800m and 1100m above sea level rise inside Ba Vi National Park

b Method: A face-to-face questionnaire interview

c Contents: The questionnaire comprised of four sections:

 General information of visitors ( age, gender, socio- demographic status)

 Information about journey ( Travel costs)

 Information about awareness, attitude of the respondents about biodiversity conservation

 Visitor‟s willingness to pay

Detail contents have open-ended and closed- ended questions which is in table 10

Interviewees: number of interviews is 100 visitors in Vietnam who are in different level of age, also divided equally in gender

d Processing of contest:

A pre-testing was initially conducted before the actual survey in order to check the plausibility After that, interviewing interviewees by selected interviewees, presenting the objectives of the interview research, then leave the questionnaire and collect after interviewees done

e Time: 15th of July- 6th of September,2018

Table 1 List of dependence variables

2 = from 21-40 years old

3 = from 41- 60 years old

4 = above 60 years old”

3 Education level Education level of visitors “1 =Secondary school

2 = High school

3 = Academy/university

4 = Master /higher education level”

2 = 3,000,000- 5,999,999 VND

3 = 6,000,000 – 8,999,999 VND

4 = Above 9,000,000 VND

back to National Park

7 Total cost The cost that visitors have to

pay and intend to spend on the trip

Descriptive statistic method

Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a study They provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures Together with simple graphics analysis, they form the basis of virtually every quantitative analysis of data (William M.K Trochim,2006)

In this research, statistical variables in medicine may be of either the metric (continuous, quantitative) or categorical (nominal, ordinal) type Easily understandable examples are given The level of measurement determines what types of diagrams and statistical values are appropriate There are also different ways of presenting combinations of independent variables graphically and numerically

Bivariate correlations

The bivariate Pearson Correlation produces a sample correlation coefficient, r, which

measures the strength and direction of linear relationships between pairs of continuous variables

A correlation expresses the strength of linkage or co-occurrence between to variables in a single

value between -1 and +1 This value that measures the strength of linkage is called correlation coefficient, which is represented typically as the letter r

The bivariate Pearson Correlation is commonly used to measure the following:

 Correlations among pairs of variables

 Correlations within and between sets of variables

The bivariate Pearson correlation indicates the following:

 Whether a statistically significant linear relationship exists between two continuous variables

 The strength of a linear relationship (i.e., how close the relationship is to being a perfectly straight line)

 The direction of a linear relationship (increasing or decreasing)

In this study, Pearson Correlation was used to find the relationship between dependent variable and independent variables when ׀x׀ > 0.3 (x is Pearson Correlation values) Then using the comparison results explain in next steps

Binary logistic regression

Binary logistic regression predicts the probability that an observation falls into one of two categories of a dichotomous dependent variable based on one or more independent variables that can be either continuous or categorical In the case of this study, determination of visitor‟s willingness to pay depends on which variable has statistically significant has indicator: p < 0.05

at confidence level 95%

Binary logistic regression which contain two type of variables Dependence variable (Determination of visitors‟ willing to pay for biodiversity conservation) has two value: “ 1 = Yes; 0 = No”, whereas the dependent variables have more than two variables which has shown in table 1

Binary logistic equation function is:

[

Where: P (Y=1) = : Probability of visitors decide to pay for biodiversity conservation

P (Y=0) = : : Probability of visitors decide not to pay for biodiversity conservation

Xi: The independent variables

Nonparametric method

Average WTP measurement by nonparametric method:

 The total number of observations is N = 100 (persons)

 There are j different WTP values

 the rates that respondents are willing to pay

 is the number of visitors willing to pay corresponding rates

 is the total number of willing to pay higher than the price

∑

 S( ) is survivor function

S( ) =

Mean of WTP: WTP = ∑ [ ]

CHAPTER 3.RESULTS

3.1 Socio-demographic characteristics of variables

Socio-demographic characteristics of the visitors (table 2) indicate 51% of the sample interviewed is women while men constitute the remaining 49%

The category of the visitors whose in age 21-40 were 86 %, 41-60 years were 9 % and above 60 was 5%

The educational level of the respondents showed that 66% of the visitors interviewed have attained university level of education while the remaining 34% were reported to have attained non-university level of education including primary, secondary or high school and colleges

Of the total visitors surveyed, 41% reported come from under 60 km zone including Ha Noi, Hoa Binh, Vinh Phuc and Bac Ninh province, 23% from Thai Nguyen, Nam Dinh, Phu Tho and Hai Duong belong to 61- 120 km zone; 20% belong to 121- 150 km including Ninh Binh, Hai Phong and 16% of above 150 km zone which has Thai Binh, Lang Son, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An province

For 4 levels of income variable 19% of visitors have income from 1,000,000-2,999,999 VND, from 3,000,000- 5,999,999 VND of visitor‟s income is 23%, from 6,000,000-8,999,999 VND and above 9,000,000 VND have following 37% and 21% of visitor‟s income Visitors mainly come to National Parkby car and motorbikes with the flowing rates are 41% and 59%