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Financing Marine Protected Areas Through Visitor Fees: Insights from Tourists Willingness to Pay in Chile

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Abstract

Tourism is a financing mechanism considered by many donor-funded marine conservation initiatives. Here we assess the potential role of visitor entry fees, in generating the necessary revenue to manage a marine protected area (MPA), established through a Global Environmental Facility Grant, in a temperate region of Chile. We assess tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) for an entry fee associated to management and protection of the MPA. Results show 97 % of respondents were willing to pay an entrance fee. WTP predictors included the type of tourist, tourists’ sensitivity to crowding, education, and understanding of ecological benefits of the MPA. Nature-based tourists state median WTP values of US$ 4.38 and Sun-sea-sand tourists US$ 3.77. Overall, entry fees could account for 10–13 % of MPA running costs. In Chile, where funding for conservation runs among the weakest in the world, visitor entry fees are no panacea in the short term and other mechanisms, including direct state/government support, should be considered.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support of the BBVA Foundation Project MAPUCHE, Fondecyt Grant #1120103 and Centro de Conservación Marina Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio of the Ministerio de Economia, Fomento y Turismo. We specially thank local fishers, tourists and stakeholders from Bahía Mansa and the Lafken Mapu Lahual area, specifically inhabitants of Maicolpue and Pucatrihue. We sincerely thank A. Hinostroza (tourism coordinator at Mapu Lahual), for logistical help while developing surveys and K. Crossley for reading earlier versions of the ms. We thank R. Arriagada for insightful discussions. We are grateful of two anonymous reviewers, thanks to whom the paper improved substantially.

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Author notes

  1. Stefan Gelcich, Juan Carlos Castilla & Miriam Fernandez

    Present address: Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile

    Francisca Amar

  2. Centro de Conservación Marina & Laboratorio Internacional en Cambio Global (LINCGlobal), Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Stefan Gelcich, Francisca Amar, Juan Carlos Castilla & Miriam Fernandez

  3. Departamento de Estadística, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Correo 22, Santiago, Chile

    Abel Valdebenito

  4. Fundacion Biomar, Faro de los Colonos, calle Paseo del Vigía 1447, Puerto Varas, Chile

    Cecilia Godoy

  5. ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Duan Biggs

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  1. Stefan Gelcich
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Correspondence to Stefan Gelcich.

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Gelcich, S., Amar, F., Valdebenito, A. et al. Financing Marine Protected Areas Through Visitor Fees: Insights from Tourists Willingness to Pay in Chile. AMBIO 42, 975–984 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-013-0453-z

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