Household’s Willingness to Pay for the Expansion of Mataasna Bayan and Sinisian East Marine Protected Area in Lemery, Batangas, Philippines

Abstract

The study was conducted primarily to 1) identify the socio-economic and the knowledge, attitude and perception (KAP) factors that affect the WTP of the households; 2) determine the socio-economic factors affecting the KAP of households; and 3) determine the mean willingness to pay (WTP) of households of four barangays of Lemery, Batangas: Mataasna Bayan and Sinisian East as on-site barangays and Balanga and Sinisian West as off-site barangays of the Marine Protected Area (MPA). A total of 316 respondents were surveyed following the contingent valuation method (CVM). Results showed that the mean WTP of the respondents amounts to PhP 46.47 per month. Among factors influencing their WTP are KAP variables such as knowledge on MPA, knowledge on MPA as fish habitat, perception on the need of MPA protection led by the Barangay, perception if there is anything to be changed in MPA management, and socio-economic variables like gender, income-expenses ratio and distance from the MPA. Using the mean WTP, the computed social benefit derived by the on-site and off-site MPA communities from coral reef conservation-based from their WTP amounted to PhP 999,215.734 per year.