Assessment of the conservation value of Munseom area in Jeju Island, South Korea

ABSTRACT

The ecosystem of munseom area (MA) in Jeju Island, one of the marine protected areas in South Korea, has been continuously threatened by lack of management and pollution of the surrounding sea area. As a result, the South Korean government is trying to implement the systematic management plan to conserve the marine ecosystem of the MA. This article tries to obtain information about the conservation value of the MA. To this end, this study examines household willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving the MA employing the contingent valuation (CV) approach. A total of 1000 South Korean households were involved in the CV survey using a dichotomous choice question. The mean yearly WTP for the conservation is estimated as KRW 1763 (USD 1.50) per household. The national value expanded from the sample to the population is worth KRW 34.0billion (USD 29.0 million) per year. The results imply that the conservation is supported by South Korean households.

KEYWORDS:

• Munseom area
• Jeju Island
• contingent valuation
• conservation value
• willingness to pay

Acknowledgments

This research was a part of the project titled 'Marine ecosystem-based analysis and decision-making support system development for marine spatial planning', funded by the Korea Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (grant number 20170325).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Korea Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (grant number 20170325).