Valuing the Beachscape Beauty of Caramoan, the Philippines: Towards Establishing a User Fee System for Sustainable Ecotourism and Coastal Resource Management
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〔 90 〕 農林業問題研究（第 182 号・2011 年 6 月） Valuing the Beachscape Beauty of Caramoan, the Philippines: Towards Establishing A User Fee System for Sustainable Ecotourism and Coastal Resource Management Raul G. Bradecina (Partido State University) Asa Jose U. Sajise (University of the Philippines Los Banos) Teruyuki Shinbo (Kochi University) フィリピン・カラモアン地域における沿岸環境の価値評価： 持続可能なエコツーリズムと沿岸資源管理のための利用料金システム ラウル・ギガ・ブラデシナ（パルティド州立大学） アサ・ホセ・U・サヒセ（フィリピン大学ロスバニョス校） 新保輝幸（高知大学） 本研究では，フィリピン・カラモアン地域の沿 半数が海岸景観の保全への支払いに同意し，提示 岸景観保全に向けた WTP を推定するために CVM 額を拒否した者の約 7 割が抵抗回答であった．抵 を適用した．まず回答者は多くが教育を受けた若 抗回答を除き不確かな回答を調整した推計では， い世代で比較的裕福な階層であった．また沿岸へ 平均 WTP は年額 1,147 ペソとなった．この高い のゴミ散逸や汚染，ダイナマイト漁等が沿岸環境 WTP はアクセスが悪いため残された原生的な自 の保全における主要な管理問題となっているが， 然に起因すると考えられる．集計 WTP は年額 保全へ向けた管理権限の設定や，沿岸保全や漁業 13,764,000 ペソであった．今後，沿岸資源管理の 関連の法規制に対する住民の認知が観光の持続可 全体的な開発計画に基づいた利用料金の徴収シス 能性に効果的と認識されていた．回答者のおよそ テムについて検討が急がれる． 1. Introduction spans two governing institutions in the area under differ- Caramoan, Philippines is a town endowed with nature’s ent institutional arrangements that create an institutional beauty preserved by its seclusion. The primary attraction dilemma as to their overall management. The manage- of the area is the scenic view of the beachscapes which is ment of beachscapes within the protected area is placed defined by unique geologic configurations, white sands and under the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) by clear waters. Its beauty is further boosted by unexplored virtue of the NIPAS in partnership with the provincial lakelets, subterranean passages and caves in small lime- government, while management of the beachscapes out- stone islands (Escandor, 2010). Caramoan is remotely situ- side the protected area, is placed under the municipal gov- ated at the southernmost tip of Luzon Island and at the ernment by virtue of the Local Government Code (LGC). eastern portion of Camarines Sur Province. It is 501 km The open-access nature of coastal areas, lack of employ- from the capital city of Metro Manila (Figure 1). ment opportunities and institutional weakness compound- Within Caramoan is a Natural Protected Area estab- ed the impacts of threats to coastal and upland ecosystems lished under the National Integrated Protected Area in Caramoan. Dynamite fishing, mangrove cutting and System Law (NIPAS). It is considered as one of the key small-scale beach sand quarrying resulted in reduced coral biodiversity areas (KBA) in the country and supports cover, decline of fish population and siltation in some areas various ecosystems including lowland forest, mangrove (Pelea et al., 2005). Selective logging, slash and burn and coral reef. The contiguous nature of the beachscapes farming and cutting of trees for domestic use reduced the （ 90 ） 個別報告論文 〔 91 〕 conservation, willingness to pay for conservation and socio- economic status. The brochure consisted of information on the status of the beachscapes, its threats, description of worst scenario, recent initiatives by the municipality to address the threats, and the hypothetical trust fund and fee collection mechanism for conservation. After reminding the respondents of their personal income constraints in giv- ing answers, the valuation question was posed as follows: “Let me take you back to the time that you were thinking Figure 1. L ocation of the study area in the of going to Caramoan. Would you have come if you knew Philippines that there was a PhP ____ entrance fee?; and that this fee population of some endemic birds and reptiles in the were to be managed by the Municipal Government and the upland areas (Bird Life International, 2010). Tourism Management Council and used solely for the pur- Four years ago, Caramoan was unknown in the tourism pose of protecting the beachscapes’ beauty and ecosystem? communities. It generated local and international media _ Yes (Go to No.2 & 3) _ No (Go to No. 4) attention when the international series of the hit reality Response certainty questions as well as reasons for show “Survivor” was alternately filmed by French, Israel unwillingness to pay were incorporated into the question- and Bulgarian televisions in the area from 2008 until last naire in consideration of some socio-cultural context in year (Aguilar, 2010). Since then, local and foreign travelers the area such as lack of experience in answering CVM started to explore its beaches. The influx of tourism in the surveys by local respondents and scenario rejection which future could further undermine the beachscapes’ aesthetic could cause bias. quality and ecosystems. The response certainty question as presented below, The government institutions in Caramoan are starting clarifies how certain respondents are about their positive to seriously consider the management and conservation of WTP answers (Loomis and Ekstrand, 1998) as cited by the beachscapes as main ecotourism assets. However, a Endab (2007). Reasons for willingness to pay were provid- sustainable source of funding for the purpose is a major ed in question number 3: constraint. This study estimated the willingness to pay for “If you answered yes, how certain are you that you would the conservation of beachscape beauty of Caramoan as pay? Please indicate the degree of certainty: input in establishing user fee system for sustainable ecot- ___ Very unsure ourism and coastal resource management. ____ Not sure ____ Sure 2. Methods ____ Very sure Preliminary activities included exploratory visit, key Reasons for unwillingness to pay were provided in informant interviews and training of enumerators. A question number 4 to check off the respondents’ motive pre-test of the questionnaire and the contingent scenario behind a negative response. Four of these reasons such as: brochure with simple photos was conducted to 50 respon- “Only the fishers and resort owners who benefits should dents using bid amounts of PhP 100, 250, 500, 750 and pay”; “Only the rich should pay”; “Majority of the poor 1000. A final survey was conducted using final bid amounts will be affected; and “I do not believe that the money I pay of PhP 100, PhP 450, PhP 950, PhP 1250 and PhP 1800. will be used for conservation” were considered as “protest The sample respondents were directly assigned to the bid votes”. Some researchers consider protest votes as non- amounts. The respondents in the study were the local zero value response and need not be included in further tourists who have stayed for a day in Caramoan and are analysis (Loomis et al., 1994) as cited by Subade (2005). earning income. A total of 1,000 respondents were inter- Others insist to include protest zero bids as true zero bids viewed between January and April, 2010 using drop-off and (Halstead et al. 1992). face-to-face intercept strategies. Four data sets were generated namely: uncensored The questionnaire consisted of respondents’ perceptions response, certainty response-adjusted; protest response- on local coastal environment and governance, attitude on adjusted; and combined certainty-adjusted and protest （ 91 ） 〔 92 〕 農林業問題研究（第 182 号・2011 年 6 月） response-adjusted. Overall, four models were considered Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of in the analysis using STATA. Model 1 deals with the the respondents uncensored response data set whereby “no” responses were considered as legitimate zero valuation. Model 2 Parameters n % deals with the certainty-adjusted response data set where- Gender in uncertain yes responses were recoded to zero. Model 3 Male 467 47.0 Female 533 53.0 deals with the protest-adjusted response data set whereby Civil Status the “no” responses with “protest votes” were censored. Single 589 59.0 Model 4, considered as the preferred model, deals with Married 394 39.0 Widow/er 17 2.0 combined certainty and protest response adjusted data Educational Attainment sets. Observations with monthly income of PhP 2,000 and Elementary level 0 0.0 below, as well PhP 400,000 and above were deemed unre- Elementary Graduate 0 0.0 3 0 3 alistic and considered outliers. A total of 25 observations High School Level . High School Graduate 11 1.1 were outliers and not included in the logit analysis. College Level 84 8.4 Incorporating certainty and censoring protest response Vocational Level 19 1.9 can address cultural context strategic behaviors that often College Graduate 760 76.0 Graduate 123 12.3 result to fat-tail problem. The common occurrence of fat- tail problem associated with open-ended, stated preference CV has been discussed in literatures (Whittington, et al. Table 2. Rank of local coastal environment and 2000; Subade and Jugado, 2010). This study also tested environment governance issues known such occurrence. to respondents Number 3. Results and Discussion Environmental and of responses Weighted [1] Socioeconomic Characteristics of the Respondents Rank Governance Issues by rank Mean The socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents 1 2 3 are shown in Table 1. On the average, the respondents’ age is 33.4 years old and has monthly income of PhP Cyanide fishing 0 57 63 2.525 11 Compressor fishing 6 20 12 2.158 5 26,319. These indicate that the average visitors in Siltation 7 9 12 2.179 6 Caramoan are young, highly educated and moderately Blast fishing 56 56 56 2.000 2 affluent. In 2007, Filipino families with monthly income Sand quarrying 54 77 58 2.021 3 Littering on the beach 456 187 153 1.619 1 ranging from PhP 20,920 to PhP 170,440 are considered Small scale mining 14 46 49 2.321 10 middle class. Considered poor are families with monthly Overcrowding of income below PhP 6,105 which is the country’s poverty tourists 34 86 96 2.287 8 threshold (Devpulse, 2008). Unregulated fishing 36 74 86 2.255 7 Unplanned, [2] Awareness of Local Coastal and Environment proliferation of Governance Issues houses, resorts, The respondents’ awareness of local coastal and envi- infrastructure 147 286 243 2.142 4 ronmental governance issues presented in Table 2 indicat- Cutting of mangroves, ed the area’s weakness on solid waste management as vegetation 70 99 168 2.291 9 well as the presence of unsustainable economic activities that exert pressure on the tourism assets.