Value of Conserving the Vietnamese Rhino
Attributes
Medium: Animals, Plants and/or Others
Country: Vietnam
Analytical Framework(s): Contingent Valuation
Unit(s): Mean WTP
Study Date: 2005
Publication Date: 2007
Major Result(s)
| Resource/Environmental Good | VND, per household (2005) |
VND, per household (2014)1 |
USD, per household (2014)2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean WTP for rhino conservation | 39,365.00 | 73,449.58 | 3.44 |
About the Inflation Adjustment: Prices in Vietnam (VND) changed by 86.59% from 2005 to 2014 (aggregated from annual CPI data), so the study values were multiplied by 1.87 to express them in 2014 prices. The study values could be expressed in any desired year (for example, to 2025) by following the same inflation calculation and being sensitive to directional (forward/backward) aggregations using your own CPI/inflation data.
Functional Transfer: Mean WTP = E ( WTP | Α, Β, Ζj ) = ( Α Ζj ) / Β with the following variables:
- Bid levels (USD)
- City (dummy, Hanoi = 1)
- Last month electricity bill (USD)
- Monthly household income (USD/month)
- Schooling years (year)
- Age (year)
- Gender (male = 1)
- Households size (total number of household members)
- Marital status (married = 1)
- Member: a dummy variable to identify whether or not the respondent is member of an environmental organization (yes = 1). It is noted that only 3 percent of the sample were members of some environmental organizations.
Study Note: A mandatory one-time payment through the electricity bill was used. Electricity bill was seen as the most efficient way to collect money since electricity is provided in all districts in Vietnam and almost all households are connected. Because the Vietnamese Rhino is already critically endangered, a one-time payment was proposed so that the amount that could be raised immediately could be known and made available. After several FGDs and pretests, the five bid levels were set at VND 1,000; 10,000; 25;000; 50,000 and 300,000 (equivalent to USD 0.0625; 0.625; 1.5625; 3.125; 18.75). The bid levels were set so that the highest level would be rejected by 90-95% of the respondents.
Study Details
Summary: This paper is part of a bigger research project on Local Willingness to Pay (WTP) for the Conservation of Endangered Species in Southeast Asia. The research measures WTP using contingent valuation method for a conservation program for the Vietnamese Rhinoceros and a regional conservation program for sea turtles, which are now critically endangered. Five bid levels were used based on the results of a pretest of 120 questionnaires in Ho Chi Minh City. A drop-off survey of 800 households was done in two cities: Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi; 690 households responded. The mean WTP was estimated at USD 2.50/household.
Site Characteristics: The survey required that the respondents should be the household head or a working member. The respondents aged 18-82 years, averaging 39 years. Their average schooling years was 12.15 years, higher than that of the country. Household size was 4.7 persons on the average. The monthly household income of HCMC respondents was USD 222, slightly higher than the Hanoi respondents' (USD 204). The average income of both survey groups was USD 213, of which USD 15.2 was spent on electricity. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said that Vietnam does not properly take care of its environment. However, only 10 percent viewed environment as the most important issue. Most of the respondents indicated poverty, economic problem, and education as the three most important problems.
Comments: Adjustments were made for certainty and protest votes. Several pre-testing surveys were conducted in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to validate the wording of the questionnaire and identify potential problems. The questionnaire was revised after each pretest. The drop-off survey method was used. To reduce the non-response rate, incentives were given. For both surveyed cities (Hanoi and HCMC), the respondents had the chance to win one of the three prizes worth USD 100, 25, and 12.