Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia Tanglin PO Box 101 Singapore 912404 Phone: (65) 6831-6854 Fax: (65) 6235-1849 E-mail:
[email protected] Web site: www.eepsea.org R E S E A R C H R E P O R T No. 2004-RR3 Distribution of Benefits and Costs among Stakeholders of a Protected Area: An Empirical Study from China Yazhen Gong Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, c/o Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry,2425 main mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4, Canada. (
[email protected] [email protected]) This report provides information on the impact of a new conservation regime in the Fanjingshan National Reserve (FNNR) in Guizhou Province, China. It calculates the economic and social effects that this regime will have on the livelihoods of people living inside the reserve. It shows that, if local people are not compensated for lost incomes, the new plans will increase conflict between locals and the reserve management. To find a way to pay compensation, the study investigated whether people living in the province around the reserve would be willing to pay for conservation in the FNNR through an eco-tax. These people benefit from conservation in the reserve, but at present pay nothing towards it. The report finds that they would be willing to pay and that the amount that could be collected would more than cover of compensating those affected inside the protected area. Published by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) Tanglin PO Box 101, Singapore 912404 (www.eepsea.org) tel: +65-6235-1344, fax: +65-6235-1849, email:
[email protected] EEPSEA Research Reports are the outputs of research projects supported by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia.