Estimating The Taiwanese Willingness To Pay For Conserving The Formosan Black Bear

• Main Authors: Shih-Ming Wang, 王仕銘
• Other Authors: Wei-Chun Tseng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/32510997097725189164

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 應用經濟學系所 === 101 === In recent decades, wildlife in Taiwan has been threatened by economic activities, over-exploitation of the natural environment, the development of the mountains, habitat disturbance, and illegal hunting. These threat the existence of many animal species that already have low populations. The most regrettable example is the Formosa Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura) has become extinct announced by Taiwan-US research team on April, 2013. Another large species, the Formosan black bear (Ursus thibetanus formosanus) is noteworthy. Currently, the population of Taiwan black bear is still unknown but is not optimistic. As early as 1989, the Wildlife Protection Act listed Formosan black bear as an endangered species, meaning that the number of Formosan black bear falls below the standard and its existence has been facing a crisis. Estimating the value of the Formosan black bear will show its importance to the government, non-governmental organizations, and general public. Eventually could induce relevant measures to conserve the Formosan black bear. Therefore, this study uses the contingent valuation method (CVM) and information obtained from questionnaires to evaluate the Taiwanese people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation of the Formosan black bear. I create a hypothetical market and use closed-ended single-bounded binary choice method and double-bounded dichotomous choice method to estimate the WTP. The personal per year WTP of Taiwanese people ranges from NT 1,005 to NT 1,270. The annual total WTP of Taiwanese people is between NT13.6 billion and NT 17.2 billion. Formosan black bear is the largest land animal in Taiwan, the largest carnivorous animal in Taiwan, and the only native bear in Taiwan (endemic). It has a variety of values including ecology, conservation, and cultural values. The government should pay much attention to conservation of the natural environment in order to maintain sustainable natural resources. Otherwise, the survival of wildlife will have great risks.