Use of Contingent Valuation to analyse conservation effectiveness in coastal wetlands

Local people rely heavily on the marine resources of the Asian Seas and coastal wetlands can provide benefits to local people, particularly through sustainable fishing and wetland related activities. The present level of recognition of this fact is low and therefore public support and awareness is very poor. Public support for marine biodiversity conservation is essential for gaining political approval and support for marine protected areas. Developing the public's interest in wetland conservation will depend on increase public awareness, understanding and acceptance of the need for, and benefits of wetland biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. It has to be ensured that wetlands provide tangible financial and social benefits to local communities. This can be achieved by developing management approaches that integrate sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. There is a paucity of data on the total economic values of resources and activities carried out within wetlands. Standard economic concepts will be used in this research to develop a model of individual behaviour using the contingent valuation framework. This analytical framework will be used to measure the project’s total benefits, benefits that often involve a significant passive-use value component in wetlands. Passive-use values are those portion of total value that are unobtainable using direct measurement techniques which rely on observed market behaviour.