서식지외 보전기관의 가치에 관한 연구

Abstract

The Ocean cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and contains a lot of sea creatures from microscopic plankton to the giant blue whale. However, some of marine species to become endangered because of a number of factors, human disturbances to marine ecosystem may the most leading cause among them. Therefore, Korea government has designated eleven Ex-situ conservation institutions, which protect and conserve marine endangered species at the artificial habitat areas such as aquarium and maritime museum since 2010.

Yet the proper economic value of Ex-situ conservation institution has never been estimated, because it is not well recognized in Korea and it is non-market good to estimate economic value (price). The objective of this study is to estimate the economic value of Ex-situ conservation institution with the case of green turtle conservation by Korea National Maritime Museum.

To do this, a dichotomous-choice contingent-valuation survey was conducted to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation and restoration of the green tuttle by Korea National Maritime Museum in Busan Metropolitan City, Korea.

Mean WTP estimate based on a probit model was 7,750 Korean won per household annually as income tax. Econometric result indicates that the major factors influencing support for the green tuttle conservation by Korea National Maritime Museum were concerns on marine animals (positive), need of Ex-situ conservation institution (positive), visiting experience of Korea National Maritime Museum (positive), necessity of marine animals conservation research (positive), and against animal testing and capturing for conservation purpose (positive).