Valuing the Hikkaduwa Coral Reef: An Application of the Zonal Travel Cost Method

Hikkaduwa marine ecosystem is one of the major attractions among the recreationists for its fringing coral reef and the beach. However, a rapid degradation of the coral reef and the beach pollution are the main influences on the sustainable tourism. In this context, valuing the Hikkaduwa Marine National Park is important in order to draw the attention for the protection of the ecosystem. The objectives of this research were to estimate the economic values derived by the local visitors and to derive an optimal entrance fee. This research also aimed at investigating factors that influence visitation rates. Data collected from an onsite survey carried out among a sample of 231 visitors from 16 districts in Sri Lanka were analysed, using the Zonal Travel Cost Method to estimate the recreational value derived by the local visitors. The travel cost function showed that visitation rate is significantly and positively influenced by recreational experience and urban population fraction. The explanatory power of the estimated model was strong with an adjusted R2 value of 0.752. In the second stage, these significant explanatory variables were used to construct the demand curve. The estimated local recreational value of the park is around 380 times the income from the local visitors per year, which is worth about Rs. 1,300 per local visitor. As this site does not have a proper entrance fee, the calculated entrance fee which maximises the total revenue was around Rs.1,100. However, the current level of visitors will be reduced by more than 50%, if this entrance fee is imposed implying intragenerational equity issues. The outcomes of this research are useful in the management decision making for the protection of the Hikkaduwa coral reef and the surrounding environment.Keywords: Consumer surplus, Hikkaduwa coral reef, Tourism, Zonal Travel Cost Metho

Valuation of Marine Ecosystem Conservation: A Case Study on Hikkaduwa National Park, Sri Lanka

Hikkaduwa National Park is one of the four marine national parks in Sri Lanka and a main recreational attraction. Hikkaduwa coral reef is a typical shallow fringing reef with an average depth of around 5 metres. However, the reef has suffered high degradation due to both natural and manmade causes. Despite being designated as a protected area, the coral reef has been subjected to constant exploitation including removal of breeding ornamental fish for the commercial market. This stress the need for sustainable management of the resource related to tourism activities. This research aims at providing an economic valuation of coral reef management policy options, using stated preference-choice experimental analysis. Random sampling method was used and 200 visitors were interviewed using pretested questionnaire with different choice sets. Tourists were interviewed onsite from June to July 2019 for data collection. A conditional logit model was employed to analyse the data using STATA14. According to the results, highest number (34%) of respondents had A/L qualifications. Many visitors (50%) were from Gampaha and Colombo Districts. The estimated model is statistically significant with 0.46 pseudo R-sq value. The cost variable is statistically significant but negatively influenced confirming theoretical expectations. The main attributes selected for the study were condition of the coral reef, cleanliness of the beach, condition of the boats and availability of facilities. The condition of the coral reef was considered as an important attribute, but healthy and improved coral reef is insignificant in the model. In addition, bleached and broken coral was a less important variable compared to status quo option. Regarding the attribute of cleanliness of the beach, clean beach and no proper management of beach were less important compared to somewhat clean beach. Condition of the boats were the other attribute presented and new boats with safe jackets were considered as important compared to no safe jackets and old boats and boats with engines that are not properly functioning and with some safe jackets. The significant variables were used to estimate the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) values. According to the results Marginal Willingness To Accept (MWTA) if the corals are bleached and broken is Rs. 711, if the beach is clean Rs. 684 and if not properly managed Rs.66.38. The usefulness of the derived results in guiding the park management are discussed.Keywords: Coral reef, Choice experiment analysis, Hikkaduwa National Park, Sustainable tourism, Willingness to pa

The Charging Structure for the Great Barrier Reef - A review of willingness to pay

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA or the Reef Authority) is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the charging structure for the use of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Marine Park with a view to implement potential changes from 1 July 2023

Assessing Visitor Preferences and Willingness to pay for Marine National Park Hikkaduwa: application of choice experiment method

Eco-tourism all over the world is threatened by the fact that the coral reefs and associated ecosystems are in a process of disappearing at an accelerated rate due to several natural and anthropogenic causes. In this context, the Marine National Park Hikkaduwa (MNPH), one of the four marine national parks in Sri Lanka, that features a fringing coral reef with a high degree of biodiversity, reports a decreasing trend in visitation mainly due to a condition of coral bleaching caused by an El Nino effect. Unfortunately, the regeneration of the corals is found to be slowed by continuous anthropogenic activities. Against this background, the research focuses on investigating how visitor behaviour changes with the degraded situation and what avenues are available to attract more visitors to ensure benefit flows. In this concern, visitor preferences regarding the quality of the habitats and other facilities and their significance were analysed under a conditional logistic regression model. Further, a choice experiment was carried out with a randomly selected group of 200 visitors to diagnose their response to the present condition of the coral reef, the beach, and the facilities provided. Under a conditional logistic model, it was discovered that the condition of the coral reef is an important attribute that answers the question of why visitors are not willing to pay if the corals are bleached and broken. It was also discovered that the visitors are willing to pay LKR 322.52 if they are provided with new boats and new safety jackets. The results indicate that benefit flows could be enhanced with the restoration of coral ecosystems and the improvement of the physical infrastructure. Overall, the research attempts to establish that the standard maintenance of the coral reef along with high-quality visitor welfare facilities to match visitor preferences will positively impact all types of payment compliance issues with regard to the visitors

Lung Recruitment Strategies During High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation in Preterm Lambs

Background: High frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) is considered a lung protective ventilation mode in preterm infants only if lung volume is optimized. However, whilst a “high lung volume strategy” is advocated for HFOV in preterm infants this strategy is not precisely defined. It is not known to what extent lung recruitment should be pursued to provide lung protection. In this study we aimed to determine the relationship between the magnitude of lung volume optimization and its effect on gas exchange and lung injury in preterm lambs.Methods: 36 surfactant-deficient 124–127 d lambs commenced HFOV immediately following a sustained inflation at birth and were allocated to either (1) no recruitment (low lung volume; LLV), (2) medium- (MLV), or (3) high lung volume (HLV) recruitment strategy. Gas exchange and lung volume changes over time were measured. Lung injury was analyzed by post mortem pressure-volume curves, alveolar protein leakage, gene expression, and histological injury score.Results: More animals in the LLV developed a pneumothorax compared to both recruitment groups. Gas exchange was superior in both recruitment groups compared to LLV. Total lung capacity tended to be lower in the LLV group. Other parameters of lung injury were not different.Conclusions: Lung recruitment during HFOV optimizes gas exchange but has only modest effects on lung injury in a preterm animal model. In the HLV group aiming at a more extensive lung recruitment gas exchange was better without affecting lung injury

First insights into the phylogenetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nepal

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Nepal. Strain variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis may influence the outcome of TB infection and disease. To date, the phylogenetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed 261 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from pulmonary TB patients recruited between August 2009 and August 2010 in Nepal. M. tuberculosis lineages were determined by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) typing and spoligotyping. Drug resistance was determined by sequencing the hot spot regions of the relevant target genes. Overall, 164 (62.8%) TB patients were new, and 97 (37.2%) were previously treated. Any drug resistance was detected in 50 (19.2%) isolates, and 16 (6.1%) were multidrug-resistant. The most frequent M. tuberculosis lineage was Lineage 3 (CAS/Delhi) with 106 isolates (40.6%), followed by Lineage 2 (East-Asian lineage, includes Beijing genotype) with 84 isolates (32.2%), Lineage 4 (Euro-American lineage) with 41 (15.7%) isolates, and Lineage 1 (Indo-Oceanic lineage) with 30 isolates (11.5%). Based on spoligotyping, we found 45 different spoligotyping patterns that were previously described. The Beijing (83 isolates, 31.8%) and CAS spoligotype (52, 19.9%) were the dominant spoligotypes. A total of 36 (13.8%) isolates could not be assigned to any known spoligotyping pattern. Lineage 2 was associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.58, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.42-4.67, p = 0.002), and any drug resistance (aOR 2.79; 95% CI 1.43-5.45; p = 0.002). We found no evidence for an association of Lineage 2 with age or BCG vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS: We found a large genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal with representation of all four major lineages. Lineages 3 and 2 were dominating. Lineage 2 was associated with clinical characteristics. This study fills an important gap on the map of the M. tuberculosis genetic diversity in the Asian reg

Stormwater reuse, a viable option: Fact or fiction?

The increasing spread of urbanization is a common phenomenon witnessed in most parts of the world due to the perceived benefits of urban living. A compounding issue is the growing shortage of safe and reliable water sources. Perennial water shortages are becoming a common feature in many parts of the world. It is important to recognize stormwater reuse as a key resource for securing adequate future water supplies based on the concept of ‘water fit for purpose’. These require careful prioritization of vulnerabilities, identification of the areas requiring adaptation and provide certainty of outcomes. Given the increasing inevitability of climate change it should be viewed as an opportunity to take advantage of new opportunities which stormwater reuse presents. This study identified key barriers to stormwater reuse and the difficulties in removing them

Apoptosis-Related Gene Expression Profiling in Hematopoietic Cell Fractions of MDS Patients

Contains fulltext : 168172.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Although the vast majority of patients with a myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) suffer from cytopenias, the bone marrow is usually normocellular or hypercellular. Apoptosis of hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow has been implicated in this phenomenon. However, in MDS it remains only partially elucidated which genes are involved in this process and which hematopoietic cells are mainly affected. We employed sensitive real-time PCR technology to study 93 apoptosis-related genes and gene families in sorted immature CD34+ and the differentiating erythroid (CD71+) and monomyeloid (CD13/33+) bone marrow cells. Unsupervised cluster analysis of the expression signature readily distinguished the different cellular bone marrow fractions (CD34+, CD71+ and CD13/33+) from each other, but did not discriminate patients from healthy controls. When individual genes were regarded, several were found to be differentially expressed between patients and controls. Particularly, strong over-expression of BIK (BCL2-interacting killer) was observed in erythroid progenitor cells of low- and high-risk MDS patients (both p = 0.001) and TNFRSF4 (tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily 4) was down-regulated in immature hematopoietic cells (p = 0.0023) of low-risk MDS patients compared to healthy bone marrow