Economic valuation of biodiversity conservation and management attributes of a Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sabah, Malaysia

One of the main challenges faced by many protected areas is financial sustainability. A well-functioning protected area needs sustainable revenue in order to conserve its natural resources and to sustain in the long-run. The Rainforest Discovery Centre (hereafter RDC), Sabah is situated on the northeast of the Island of Borneo and classified as a Virgin Jungle Reserve (under the Sabah Enactment 1968) which established primarily for forest research purposes. The first objective of this study is to assess the visitors’ perceptions and willingness to pay (WTP) for the RDC, Sabah, Malaysia. The four factors analysed in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); namely social relationship (F1), nature appreciation (F2), escape from routine (F3) and challenges and freedom (F4) as well as the socioeconomic attributes of respondents were incorporated into the contingent valuation method (CVM) model to estimate the visitors’ WTP for the RDC, Sabah. The choice experiment (CE) method was used to meet the second and third objectives of the study, which is to assess visitors’ preferences and their WTP towards management and conservation attributes of the RDC, Sabah. The results of the study revealed that visitors are ready to pay for additional fees for better conservation practices in the RDC. The CVM logit model revealed that the total economic value of RDC, Sabah would have been about RM 534 288 in 2017 compared to its actual revenue, which was RM 327 730. In the CE analyses, visitors were generally support the proposed development for RDC. The improvement of ‘protection level’ (PL) attribute was the most concerned issue for the management aspect of RDC. Since the random parameter logit (RPL) model revealed that PL was specified as random, therefore the individual heterogeneity exists for PL. On the other hand, the ‘declining in wildlife species’ (DP) attribute is the one of compelling issues in biodiversity aspect and need greater attention. In sum, any protected areas (PAs) need sustainable revenue for better conservation practices as well as to sustain and remain relevant to ecotourists. Entry fees is one of the most reliable sources of income to fund the development and operation of any PAs as well as to conserve the biodiversity.

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