The Environmental Conservation Value of the Saemangeum Open Sea in Korea
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sustainability Article The Environmental Conservation Value of the Saemangeum Open Sea in Korea Seul-Ye Lim, So-Yeon Park and Seung-Hoon Yoo * ID Department of Energy Policy, Graduate School of Energy & Environment, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, 232 Gongreung-Ro, Nowon-Gu, Seoul 01811, Korea; [email protected] (S.-Y.L.); [email protected] (S.-Y.P.) * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +82-2-970-6802 Received: 16 August 2017; Accepted: 26 October 2017; Published: 6 November 2017 Abstract: The Saemangeum open sea (SOS), which refers to the outer sea of the Saemangeum seawall in Korea, is being threatened by contamination caused by the Saemangeum development project. The policy-makers need information on the environmental conservation value of the SOS for informed decision-making about the SOS. This paper attempts to measure the environmental conservation value of the SOS. To this end, the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving the SOS is derived from a 2015 contingent valuation survey of 1000 Korean households comprising 400 households residing in the Saemangeum area and 600 households living in other areas. The authors employ a one-and-one-half-bounded dichotomous choice question format. Moreover, the spike model is adopted to analyze the WTP data with zero observations. The mean annual WTP values for both areas are calculated to be KRW 3861 (USD 3.26) and KRW 3789 (USD 3.20) per household, respectively. They are statistically significant at the 1% level. When the sample is expanded to the whole country, it is worth KRW 70.9 billion (USD 59.8 million) per annum. Therefore, conserving the SOS will contribute to the Korean people’s utility and can be done with public support. The value provides a useful baseline for decision-making for the SOS management. Keywords: Saemangeum; open sea; environmental conservation value; contingent valuation; willingness to pay 1. Introduction Saemangeum is an estuarine tidal flat in the western coastal area of the Korean Peninsula. It was dammed due to the Saemangeum seawall construction project carried out by the Korean government. The Saemangeum seawall is located on the coast of the Korean West Sea (near Gunsan, Gimjae and the Buan areas of Jeonbuk Province); at 33 km long, it is the world’s longest man-made dyke. It was constructed for the purpose of developing reclaimed land of 40,100 ha and providing a freshwater lake for agriculture. Since the seawall was constructed, the Saemangeum sea area has been divided into the freshwater lake and the outside open sea, the Saemangeum open sea (SOS). The government began developing the reclaimed land. Although the original plan was for the development of farmland, the project now includes not only farmland, but also industrial, commercial, and residential areas. Thus, the proportion of farmland was changed from 100% to 34%. In addition, the Saemangeum development project includes the construction of tourist facilities and new ports in the SOS. Unfortunately, Korea has not yet reached a social consensus on the magnitude of the benefits and costs involved in the project. The local governments in the Saemangeum area have strongly supported the project. This is because the Korean government will invest trillions of Korean won (billions of United States dollar) in the project and the Saemangeum area is thus expected to obtain economic gains such as the creation of new jobs, expansion Sustainability 2017, 9, 2036; doi:10.3390/su9112036 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2017, 9, 2036 2 of 14 of social infrastructure, the influx of an economically active population, and so on, if it decides to carry out the project. However, the project will negatively influence the ecological integrity of the Saemangeum area. In summary, the Saemangeum area can benefit from the development but will shoulder a burden of the environmental costs to the SOS caused by the development. The Saemangeum development project will exacerbate the water pollution of the SOS. This is because the freshwater lake, polluted from industrial and agricultural emissions, will flow into the SOS [1]. The pollution will make it difficult for people to pursue ocean recreation activities such as fishing, boat tours, watching the scenic view, and so on. In addition, the project will negatively influence marine ecosystem services that the SOS provides. The project will weaken its ability to sustain the marine biodiversity of the habitat. For example, the Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) that lives in the SOS may become extinct. Moreover, a mass mortality of Finless Porpoises (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis) may occur for some unknown reason around the Saemangeum seawall. There are still conflicts about the development. Some are interested in preserving the ecological integrity of the SOS, and others want to develop the Saemangeum area and attract tourists and capital investments using the seawall. Thus, the government is confronted with two important tasks. The first is to mediate between the opponents and the proponents for the development and set up sustainable development plans for the Saemangeum area. The second is to create the SOS management policy. In fulfilling the two tasks, information on the environmental conservation value of the SOS is required by policy-makers. Therefore, this study attempts to report the results of estimating the environmental conservation value of the SOS. Currently, the state of the SOS is relatively good. However, the artificial seawall is expected to degrade the water quality of the Saemangeum lake inside the seawall, and will thus negatively affect the ecological integrity of the SOS in the near future [2]. In order to avoid the deterioration and conserve the ecological integrity of the SOS, policies for effective management of the SOS should now be developed and implemented. There is a general lack of awareness about the conservation of the SOS although people should prepare response measures to prevent the negative effect on the marine environment due to developing the reclaimed land . In this situation, this study has tried to quantify the monetary value of the current state of the SOS. In order for policy-makers to mediate between opponents and proponents of the development, set up sustainable development plans for the Saemangeum area, and create the SOS management policy, information on the environmental conservation value of the SOS is required [3,4]. Therefore, the prime objective of this article is to add a contribution to the existing literature by measuring the environmental conservation value of the SOS. For this purpose, the article attempts to adopt the contingent valuation (CV) technique to derive the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving the SOS. The public’s WTP can be interpreted as the environmental conservation value of the SOS [5,6]. The rest of the article comprises four sections: the methodology employed in the study, the WTP model, the results and a discussion of them, and conclusions. 2. Methodology 2.1. CV Method The task of dealing with the valuation of the marine ecosystem falls to researchers. There have been a number of studies dealing with the valuation of marine ecosystems. The literature shows that such tasks have been conducted using stated preference techniques, including CV (e.g., [7–11]) and choice experiments (e.g., [12–14]). On the other hand, Camacho-Valdez et al. [15] generate baseline estimates of the ecosystem services provided by wetlands using value transfer approach. Ruitenbeek [16] used a market value approach to value a mangrove. This study seeks to examine the environmental conservation value of the SOS using the CV approach. Conserving the SOS should be understood as a case of public goods. In terms of microeconomics, the public’s WTP for a governmental plan or policy constitutes the underpinning rule for the public Sustainability 2017, 9, 2036 3 of 14 value that ensues from undertaking the plan or policy. However, as public goods are not traded on the market, the WTP for its provision cannot be observed in the market. Public goods are representative of non-market goods. Thus, to measure the public’s WTP for public goods, it is necessary to construct a hypothetical market, immerse people in the hypothetical market, and have people trade in the hypothetical market. The CV approach can carry out these procedures based on a well-organized survey of people using a well-constructed instrument and well-trained interviewers. CV is the technique most frequently applied in the literature and can easily capture compensating surplus, which is defined as the welfare gain generated from greater provision or an improvement in the quantity or quality of non-market goods. Moreover, because the value obtained from the application of CV implies the economic benefits of consuming the public goods, one can evaluate whether the provision of the public goods is socially profitable by comparing it with the costs of providing the public goods. Thus, we use the CV technique to evaluate Koreans’ WTP for conserving the SOS in Korea [17,18]. This study can be compared with the former studies in several aspects. First, there have been no studies that measure the environmental conservation value of the SOS in the literature. In this regard, this study attempts to provide quantitative information on the environmental conservation value of the SOS, which can be utilized in decision-making for the SOS management, with policy-makers. The information can be used as an appropriate and important reference point for a more detailed discussion. Second, the most widely applied technique in the valuation of the marine ecosystem is the CV technique. Thus, our approach of employing the CV in valuing the environmental conservation of the SOS is appropriate judging from the practice adopted in the previous studies. Moreover, Arrow et al.