Sustainable management of a marine protected area in Vietnam: An application of visitors’ willingness to pay for conservation in Cu Lao Cham

As an important area in terms of biodiversity and fish stocks in Vietnam, Cu Lao Cham or Cham Islands (CLC) marine protected area (MPA) is under increasing threat from human activities. Conservation efforts have recently been implemented but economic analysis of the CLC MPA’s natural values did not investigate what may affect policy decisions on CLC MPA’s sustainable development. Using a structured questionnaire and a payment card technique (based on the contingent valuation method), we estimate visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for conservation of marine resources in the CLC MPA. The log-normal regression results indicate that the visitors’ WTP for conservation is affected by their characteristics, perceptions of environmental protection and conservation, and their assessment of the current CLC MPA entrance fee. Visitors are WTP an additional amount of US$2.26 per person for conservation while visiting the CLC MPA. This indicates that with the introduction of the proposed entrance fee (the mean WTP added to the current entrance fee), the CLC MPA management would not only have sufficient funds for their management and conservation programmes, but also that the number of visitors may decline slightly, which would reduce some of the pressure on the environment, natural resources, and coral reefs.