Women Volunteerism for Protecting Watershed Ecosystem in Langat Basin

Forested watershed provides abundant ecosystem services for water users including catchment area protection, flood regulation, provisioning of clean drinking water and climate regulation. However, the value of ecosystem services only partially takes into account by policy makers and indirectly cause overexploitation of natural resources. This study observes the economic role of women in protecting watershed ecosystem by calculating willingness to pay (WTP). Langat Basin is an imperative watershed that supplying fresh water source and other necessities to approximately 1.2 million people within the catchment area. Langat Basin has getting the effect of hasty growth through industrialization and land development actions. Women within Langat Basin has been selected through face to face interview for measure willingness to pay (WTP) towards ecosystem protection. Single Bounded Dichotomous Choice technique in Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is engaged to calculate WTP of women. Willingness to pay of women in upstream is RM184.28, followed by women in middle stream is RM168.60 and lastly WTP of women in downstream is RM190.16. The willingness to pay women shows that women has potential to be part of ecosystem protection and signal to policy makers to include women in decision making process especially for environmental perspective

Road transport system in Southeast Asia; problems and economic solutions

In Southeast Asian countries (SEA), road transport accounts for the main energy consumption and CO2 emission. Air pollution is a major concern in densely populated cities such as Bangkok, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur. The main objective of this paper is to give insights on trends of transport development, car ownership, and CO2 emissions in Southeast Asia. This study also attempts to review the successful transportation policies around the globe and to introduce the possible instruments that can help reduce air pollution in Southeast Asian countries. Economic instruments to estimate the benefits of a cleaner environment due to new policies are introduced as well. The results of this research could help policy makers consider approaches that could internalize external costs of transportation and maximize the societal welfare

Road transport system in Southeast Asia; problems and economic solutions

In Southeast Asian countries (SEA), road transport accounts for the main energy consumption and CO2 emission. Air pollution is a major concern in densely populated cities such as Bangkok, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur. The main objective of this paper is to give insights on trends of transport development, car ownership, and CO2 emissions in Southeast Asia. This study also attempts to review the successful transportation policies around the globe and to introduce the possible instruments that can help reduce air pollution in Southeast Asian countries. Economic instruments to estimate the benefits of a cleaner environment due to new policies are introduced as well. The results of this research could help policy makers consider approaches that could internalize external costs of transportation and maximize the societal welfare

Willingness to pay to improve air quality: a study of private vehicle owners in Klang Valley, Malaysia

The growing number of private passenger vehicles in the Klang region of Malaysia has not only resulted in persistent traffic congestion during peak hours, but also resulted in considerable vehicular emissions causing both environmental and human health hazards. To reduce these externalities, this study examines the prospect for a transport modal shift from the use of private vehicles to the public transport system. Contingent valuation method was used to estimate how much current private passenger vehicle users are willing to pay to continue using their private vehicles. On average, private passenger vehicle users were found to be willing to pay a maximum amount of RM 4.99 (USD 1.55) per trip to avoid using the public transport system. Respondents with previous health issues were found more likely to shift to the public transportation system. Public transportation efficiency was found to have a significant impact on the respondents WTP value to maintain the current commuting system

Economic valuation of Shadegan International Wetland, Iran: notes for conservation

Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on the earth. They produce various market and non-market goods and services, which have a significant role in human welfare. Despite the great opportunities from sustainable development, wetlands all over the world are under serious threat from a diverse range of non-sustainable activities. One of the major reasons for excessive depletion and the conversion of wetland resources is due to underestimating the non-market values of wetlands during development decisions. Shadegan International Wetland (SIW) in southern Iran is one of these wetland areas that is threatened by undervaluation and overexploitation from commercial activities. This study utilizes the contingent valuation method to estimate the economic benefits of SIW from the view point of peoples’ willingness to pay (WTP). The logit model was defined based on dichotomous choice to measure individuals’ WTP. The estimated mean WTP was US$ 1.74 per household as a onetime donation. This study concludes that the benefits of SIW to society could encourage managers to set priorities to ensure that the health of the ecosystem, its integrity, and its uniqueness would be conserved in a proper manner

Household’s willingness to pay for watershed protection services in Langat Basin, Selangor using contingent valuation method

The significance of having a payment scheme for ecosystem services (PES) for the purpose of watershed protection in order to develop a sustainable forest management is globally recognised. PES is an advanced financial tool to foster a platform for generating a source of income from ecosystem service users to ecosystem providers. More importantly, the involvement of households is vital for the successful implementation of PES programmes. Thus, this study aims to examine the willingness to pay for watershed protection services among households in the Langat Basin. Households around upstream, middle-stream and downstream segments of the Langat Basin were selected randomly to be studied and involved in face-to-face interviews. The Probit and Logit models in Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) were employed to assess household’s WTP towards watershed protection efforts of the Langat Basin. The mean for WTP of Upstream household is RM30.01 while middle-stream household’s WTP is RM33.07 compared to that of the downstream household, which is RM32.41. The households’ WTP shows an increasing trend from upstream to downstream households. These results offer a new insight and discernment between PES programmes and households’ WTP so as to develop a sustainable management for water-based ecosystem services

We are willing to pay to support wetland conservation: local users' perspective

The main objective of this study is to elicit the benefits that arise from Shadegan wetland in southern Iran to the users of this ecosystem, who are impacted most significantly by degradation/conversion of this ecosystem. Hence, a choice experiment (CE) and contingent valuation method (CVM) survey of users of the Shadegan wetland were conducted to estimate the value of non-market services provided by the wetland. The benefits from high-level conservation of the wetland are estimated from CVM to be about US$2.26 per household of users. Meanwhile, the estimated compensated surplus from CE was about US$ 8.28. Findings of this study suggest that the high value of Shadegan wetland for user communities can help policy-makers and wetland managers adopt policies that have no further conversion benefits than conservation or risks of degradation

Analysis of car commuters knowledge, awareness and willing to modal shift in Klang Valley, Malaysia

The main objective of present study is to evaluate private vehicle commuters’ knowledge and concern about health and environmental impact of transportation related air pollution in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and interviewing 450 car commuters in five main areas of Klang Valley. The Results indicated that majority of respondents (58%) have knowledge about deteriorating effect of transport on society’s health and welfare. While, only 36% of them were concern about the transport related environmental problems. This study suggest that government intervention through increasing toll, parking fee and introducing congestion fee together with providing more efficient public transport can reduce more than half of travels by car

Choice Experiment Attributes Selection: Problems and Approaches in a Modal Shift Study in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Choice experiment (CE) is a questionnaire based method that the accuracy of research questionnaire determines the validity of the research outcomes. Attribute selection has a prime importance in every CE studies. If respondents do not understand or do not have preference for a certain attribute, the attribute non-attendance problem might happen that biases overall results of the research. Qualitative approaches such as literature review, focus group discussion, and in depth discussion commonly applied in CE researches. However, especially in the developing countries context where ethnical and cultural diversity is a challenge in conducting survey based questionnaires, qualitative methods are not sufficient in selecting attributes. Present study investigates the application of relative importance index (RII) in respondents¡¯ preference for attributes in a modal shift study in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The 5 point Likert scale questions were employed to enhance respondents¡¯ preferences for initial 24 selected attributes. The results of this study showed that from 24 pre-selected attributes, only 18 of them had RII\u3e0.5 and could be included in the final CE design. The results of this study could help researchers to control for unobserved problems in selecting the attributes which could not be discovered through qualitative approaches

Are Malaysians eager to use their cars less? Forecasting mode choice behaviors under new policies

In Malaysia, transportation accounts for almost 70% of carbon monoxide emissions. This study sought to discover whether intelligently changing policies for the private and public transport sectors can affect mode choice of private car owners in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Results of a random parameter logit model identified the most significant parameters affecting respondents’ utility measures. These were introducing a congestion fee in private transport mode; and also access, comfort and the frequency of the available public transport. Respondents’ marginal value estimates showed that they are willing to pay up to 175% of their hourly wage to have a more frequent and more accessible public transport. Moreover, the value of travel time showed that persons with longer commute time by car and bus are willing to pay more to save travel time. This is estimated about 25–50% of hourly wage of respondents. Simulation of results indicate that introducing the congestion fee has the largest impact both in modal shift and in reducing the number of cars used in the Klang Valley area. Overall results of this study suggested that any government intervention through innovative transport policy implementation such as pricing and providing more efficient public transport could result in 70% modal shift among current car users to public transport