문섬 등 주변해역 생태계보호구역 내 산호군락지의 보전가치

The Korean government has been trying to conserve a marine ecosystem that has been shifting due to climate change. As part of this effort, the government designated seventy-seven marine species that have been disappearing and deserve to be protected as endangered managing them specially. To generate basic data to guide policy for these endangered species, their value must be measured. OOf the species declared endangered, coral is particularly threatened by climate change, and its management is important. Accordingly, understanding the potential value of reefs, can be an effective way of proving the benefits of continuous management to decision makers and the general public alike. To this end, we have applied the contingent valuation method (CVM), an economic technique of for valuing a environmental and non-market goods such as a coral reef. A national face-to-face survey of 1,000 randomly selected households was conducted in order to determine the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving coral reefs. A one-and-one-half-bound (OOHB) model was adopted to interpret WTP responses, and a spike model was employed to deal with zero WTP responses. The results show that the conservation value of a coral reef can be estimated at 3,016 won per household per year, statistically significant at the 1% level. Expanding values to the national population gives an annual value of 58.9 billion won. We can conclude that the public is willing to pay a significant amount to conserve coral reefs.