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Tourists’ willingness to pay for restoration of Sundarbans Mangrove forest ecosystems: a contingent valuation modeling study

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Abstract

The decaying trend of the Sundarbans due to loss of habitat, lack of provision of entrance fee, absence of tourism tax, and destruction of the resource base may restrict restoration of the Sundarbans mangrove forest ecosystems. We measure tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) and revenue stream in response to the policy change of restoration schemes on a sample of (n = 607) observations. Following the random sampling technique, well-designed dichotomous choice questions were employed to elicit stated preference (SP) data toward restoration schemes of the Sundarbans mangrove forest ecosystems in selected tourist spots in the Sundarbans. It is found that age, monthly income, and years of schooling are influential factors in determining tourists’ WTP for the restoration schemes of the Sundarbans ecosystems. The estimated WTP for the restoration schemes is Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) 64.54. Investment in restoration schemes creates a guarantee to earn BDT 11.81 billion per annum. It ensures scope to collect revenue from tourists and mobilize it for the restoration schemes. This finding is robust to various alternative data, sample, and model specifications.

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Fig. 1

Source: Prepared by the authors based on the satellite image, 2021

Fig. 2

Source: Prepared by the authors based on Bateman et al. (2001)

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Data availability

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable ground and request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the respondents that participated in the study and formed our sample for collecting and analyzing the data. We are also grateful for suggestions and comments from anonymous reviewers and journal editor.

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  1. Department of Economics, Government Edward College, Pabna, 6600, Bangladesh

    Md. Hafiz Iqbal

  2. Department of Economics, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, 6205, Bangladesh

    Md. Elias Hossain

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Correspondence to Md. Hafiz Iqbal.

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Iqbal, M., Hossain, M. Tourists’ willingness to pay for restoration of Sundarbans Mangrove forest ecosystems: a contingent valuation modeling study. Environ Dev Sustain 25, 2443–2464 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02140-w

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