HOUSEHOLDS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ECOTOURISM RESOURCE CONSERVATION: THE CASE OF BORENA SAYNT WEREHIMENO NATIONAL PARK, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Ecotourism resource degradation, in the case of National Parks, is one of the most serious environmental problems in Ethiopia. To combat this problem, community-based conservation programs with active participation of local community is vital. In doing so, the local community would enjoy tourism business opportunities as incentives for supporting conservation practices. Hence, this paper investigated households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for ecotourism resource conservation and their determinants in the case of Borena Saynt Werehimeno National Park (BSWNP) through a contingent valuation method. The double bounded contingent valuation survey with an open-ended follow-up question was conducted on 399 randomly selected rural households to elicit their WTP for ecotourism resource conservation. However,18 responses excluded from the analysis due to protest bidders. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive, inferential statistics and econometric model. Inferential statistics such as t-test and chi-square tests showed a significant mean/ percentage difference between willing and non willing households related to hypothesized continuous and dummy variables respectively. Bivariate probit econometric model was applied to determine factors affecting households’ WTP and used to estimate welfare gain of proposed ecotourism resource conservation program. The result of the bivariate probit model shows that sex, farm plot near to BSWNP, total livestock holding and frequency of extension contacts have a positive and statistically significant effect on households’ WTP. While age, off-farm participation, dependency ratio, distance from home to park and initial bid have a negative and statistically significant effect on households’ WTP. The mean WTP result from the double bounded elicitation method was 51.71 labor-days contributions per year for five consecutive years with a total aggregated benefit of 1,526,703.62 labor-days contribution per year (106,869,253.4) birr per year. Therefore, in BSWNP any policy and program intervention designed to address ecotourism resource degradation problem is recommended to talk in to account local people willing to pay for effective and sustainable ecotourism resource conservation.