Visitors’ Attitude and Willingness to Pay Towards Conservation of Bornean Orangutans

The conservation of Bornean orangutans is confronted with significant predicament arising from the destruction of their natural habitat, illegal poaching and human – wildlife conflicts. The species is culturally significant in Sarawak and is endemic to Borneo, but there are only around 104,000 of them currently surviving in the wild and their numbers are decreasing rapidly. Therefore, many efforts and strategies are taken into account to conserve the species, including several conservation and fundraising programs in Matang Wildlife Centre (MWC) and Semenggoh Wildlife Centre (SWC) in Sarawak. However, because to the large sums of funds needed for Bornean orangutan conservation, it is essential that entrance fees to MWC and SWC be revised to obtain more funds. The results reveal that most people care about protecting endangered species, but they view that the burden of acquiring financial means for conservation should be primarily be shouldered by the government. Most respondents are also willing to pay higher entrance fees to improve Bornean orangutan conservation efforts, however only up to a certain threshold. The primary takeaway from this research aids conservationists and policymakers in comprehending the multifaceted factors that affect public opinion on Bornean orangutan conservation and in developing more effective strategies to increase funding

Willingness to pay in Kubah National Park and Matang Wildlife Centre: a contingent valuation method

National Park is an important component in the protected area system, and plays a key role in the tourism industry, precisely through ecotourism. Since its inception, the national park concept has been defined in different ways, but it is often connected with the idea of conservation and preservation of the nature and its ecosystems. Having the challenges in the determination of the value (price) of the non-market goods and services, non-market valuation techniques such as Contingent Valuation Method and Choice Experiment have been developed to cater the issues in valuing environmental goods. This study seeks to study on the association of ecotourism as a segment of tourism in Malaysia. However, the scope of this study is limited to the valuation of ecotourism of NPs in Malaysia, particularly in Kubah National Park, Sarawak. Data were obtained using questionnaires from face-to face interviews. A sample of 618 respondents, comprising of visitors and non-visitors (Kuching residents) were involved in the study

The convergence clubs of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries: a wise choice?

This investigation used the non-linear approach on the income convergence issues of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries to evaluate empirically the income convergence during the period 1997-2015. Alternatively, if two or more nations have shown to some degree of income convergence, it can be useful to identify the uniformity of economic performance. Because of the excessive output inequalities between members and between regions, a full aggregate convergence failed to be established yet the study further facilitates the endogenous decision of clubs convergence (sub groups). Evidence from income convergence indicates that a group of developed nations, particularly Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and Brunei comprised of the core clubs, Malaysia, China, Thailand and Indonesia, known as newly industrialized economies (NIES’s) clustered into a group. Finally, the remaining countries, converging towards each other forming another club. Seven clubs convergence implies that the RCEP members experience weak convergence between them which illustrate relatively substantial dissimilarity in its structure of the economy as a whole. Despite the dissimilarity, the speed of convergence indicates that possible catching up within the members countries, in converging towards a similar transition path of economics growth. Thus indicating further realisation of economic corporation and stronger integration among the RCEP members now and in the future

Exploring Non-Visitors’ Attitude Towards Kubah National Park’s Attributes, Roles and Functions

National parks are highly valuable and vital to the ecosystems for countries around the world. In Malaysia, it forms one of the ecotourism products or sites in Malaysia. The swift development and growth of ecotourism particularly in the national parks are inspired by the increased promotion from both tourism operators and the government. Managing national parks require both visitors and non-visitors’ information and their attitudes towards the importance of the park’s attributes, roles and functions. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the importance of attributes, roles and functions of national parks in Sarawak, from the perspective of residents and non-residents in Kuching areas (non-visitors). Non-residents include of domestic and foreign tourists, who are found in Kuching at the time of data collection. For these purposes, Kubah National Park (KNP), one of the most visited national parks in Sarawak, has been selected as a case study. Non-visitors’ were surveyed as they might be potential visitors in the future. Even if they will not visit the area in the future, the existence of the park would also benefit them indirectly as well as their future generations. Such indirect benefits or values are normally referred as non-use values. The non-use values refer to the values that human derived from the goods and services independent of any present or future use that people might make of those goods (Beukering et al., 2007). It usually divided between the bequest values and existence values. Face-to-face interviews involving selected respondents in Kuching areas were conducted in September to December 2018. A structured questionnaire was developed as the primary research instrument. Only respondents over 18 years of age who were willing to participate, were being interviewed. Results indicate that non-visitors have positive attitudes towards the attributes, roles and functions of KNP. The majority of participating respondents placed higher priority on the protection of the natural environment and wildlife as well as preservation of the biological diversity of the environment. The examination of how visitors and public perceive the roles and roles and functions of KNP would assist in delivering appropriate management and sustainable conservation of the area. This information is essential in understanding of the public or non-visitors’ attitude and perception of KNP’s attributes, roles and functions

WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT OF ADOPTING SUSTAINABLE TERUBOK FISHERIES IN SARAWAK BY USING CONTINGENT VALUATION METHOD

Sarawak is well known with its Terubok which is scientifically known as Tropical shad Tenualosa. In Sarawak, there are two types of Tenualosa that found namely Tenualosa toli and Tenualosa macura. However, due to the overexploitation and heavy fishing of terubok, the total catch landing has been declining. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the potential of establishing sustainable terubok fisheries in order to sustain the population of terubok and livelihoods of Sarawak fisherman. This study is conducted in the core terubok area which are Batang Lupar, Batang Lassa and Batang Sadong. This study employed Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to accept (WTA) of the fisherman to conserve terubok. This study found out that the bidding amount, race which is Malay and Melanau, size of household and the fisherman experience may affect the WTA of the fishers. Besides, RM 301.08 is the average amount of compensation that will be given to the Terubok fisherman in order to conserve the Terubok populations. This study also recommends that the Terubok fisherman should be more educated and educational training for the fisherman should be provided so that they may realize the importance of conserving Terubo

Evaluating Visitor’s Preferences of Ecotourism and Management Attributes in Kubah National Park: A Choice Experiment Approach

The growing numbers of national parks worldwide have somehow attracted the interests of nations around the world as it is now one of the important income generator for the tourism industry of a particular country. Since its inauguration, the concept of national parks has developed and expanded based on the important attributes of its environmental resources, albeit it is frequently affliated to the possibilities of conservation and preservation of the biodiversity and its environment. The central motivation for this study is to estimate visitor’s preferences for improvement in ecotourism and management in Kubah National Park (KNP) by utilizing the economic valuation tools, specifcally the choice experiment (CE) model. Accordingly, the focus of this study is limited to the valuation of ecotourism and management attributes of KNP, Sarawak, Malaysia. Choice experiment of the stated preference approach was utilized and fve attributes of ecotourism and management attributes were identifed, namely; (i) amenities (AMT), (ii) information availability (INFO), (iii) interpretive trails availability (ITA), (iv) park guide availability (PG) and (v) entrance fee charges (MPRICE). Information and statistics were gathered using questionnaires from face-to face interviews. Conditional logit (CLGT) model analyses involving a sample of 303 respondents was carried out