Economic Evaluation for the Marine Protected Area of San Miguel Island in Bicol Region, Philippines Comparison between WTW (Willingness to Work) and WTP (Willingness to Pay)

In order to conserve the coral reefs, seagrass beds and other marine habitats, neighboring countries along the Kuroshio Current are now carrying out community-based marine resource management, including fishery regulations, illegal fishing bans, and establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). In this study, we used stated preference techniques to investigate the rural villagers' value of resource and environmental conservation taking the case of the San Miguel Island MPA in Bicol Region, Southern Luzon, Philippines. From the 1,035 households we randomly sampled for our baseline survey, we interviews for this 329 samples from Sagurong village where the MPA is situated, and from the neighboring village Rawis. We applied a non-parametric method to estimate the mean WTW and WTP values. The monetary equivalent of the average WTW is 15 times higher than the average WTP. A possible explanation is that the labor market in rural villages in developing countries is incomplete so villagers have a stronger preference for money than for time and may have expressed their WTP too little as compared with the monetary value of the WTW. The aggregate WTW value for the two villages is equivalent to having about 100 people watch and patrol the MPA per day. On the other hand, the aggregate WTP in Sagurong is equivalent to the monthly incentive of around 43 people if we use the current monthly incentive of the patrol group. Finally, we estimated volunteer work and payment behavior equations, and examined the sign directions of the factors specified to influence WTW and WTP. In both equations, the sign of the variables such as days proposed and amount of payment and income were consistent with economic theory, suggesting the internal validity of our results.