| oral reefs, among the most spectacular of all the world's ecosystems, are increasingly threatened by human activity. Many have advocated marine protected areas (MPAs), a spatially explicit form of resource management, as a mechanism to preserve threatened coral reefs. However, despite their potential benefits, the majority of MPAs have failed to meet their conservation objectives. A lack of knowledge concerning the economic benefits provided by MPAs coupled with the generally insufficient levels of funding for preservation initiatives combine to inhibit the effectiveness of their management. This study seeks to partially remedy this information deficiency by estimating the recreational benefits enjoyed by scuba divers in the Bonaire National Marine Park (BNMP). Such estimates would represent a vital component of benefit-cost analyses of MPAs, could assist resource managers in setting appropriate access fees, and provide a starting point for natural resource damage assessments following coral reef degradation. Data was collected via a stated preference survey of 211 recreational scuba divers that visited the island of Bonaire in the southern Caribbean in 2001. The core of this survey was a series of contingent valuation and conjoint analysis questions examining divers' willingness to pay for access to the BNMP. A random utility model framework was used to analyze the data. The models were estimated using traditional multinomial and mixed logit techniques. Median annual access values ranged from... |
