Willingness to pay for whale shark conservation in Sorsogon, Philippines

Societies continually make choices among various options that affect their welfare. Tradeoffs are typically difficult to make especially in a developing country context where even basic need is sometimes hard to finance. It then becomes an empirical question whether people from a developing country would benefit from, and therefore be willing to sacrifice certain things for what can be considered as a non essential good like preservation of an endangered species. Using contingent valuation methodology (CVM), this paper sets out to determine if such benefit for whale shark preservation exists for third world citizens, or are they too poor to pay for conservation? // The study is carried out in Sorsogon province where whale shark is popularly known, as the area is touted worldwide as having the largest congregation of the species during peak season. Various multivariate logit regression analyses were done to generate sensitivity analysis of the estimates prior to the welfare value calculation. Sensitivity to payment designs was also tested through hypothesis testing. // Survey results show that the people are aware and concern about environmental issues including the precarious condition of whale sharks in Sorsogon. They are not, however, able or willing to pay for the implementation of the Conservation Program because other priorities like poverty, employment, and other economic concerns take precedence over environmental issues. Detailed observance of the entire CV exercise generated zero or close to zero welfare value. // The message is clear that with meager available resources in a developing country like the Philippines, financing of conservation program therefore necessitates assistance from international community. But there is also a lot at stake for the Philippines in ensuring the continuous existence of whale sharks and it will do well to explore alternative financing options for conservation