The same thought process applies for visiting a coral reef. Consumer surplus, or simply, additional recreational value, is well studied, and we can use this estimate to gauge the additional value people would be willing to pay to see coral reefs. We multiply the WTP value by the 5.2 million coral area tourists to find NT$ 15.7 billion per year in recreational consumer surplus. Keep in mind this is an initial benefits transfer value and not the market price.”(Maynard, 2015)
It is a fact that at least 80% of Taiwanese people have been to Kenting at some point in their life. As the first national park in the country, it is a piece of Taiwanese identity and a source of pride. Everybody knows about Kenting and will ask you to visit, because it supposed to be amazing. All in all, he measures the marine area to be worth about 40 billion NT$, which is a total economic and not financial value. This basicly translates to the fact that, Hengchun has a massive amount of valuable resources, that are underutilized and kept in the corner. It really feels like, the local communities are just sitting on this golden egg, that is never gonna benefit them.
A vanishing paradise
According to research by the Kenting National Park (KNP), more than 80% of Taiwanese people will visit the park at some point in their life, and of those, 70% will go to one of the park’s coral areas. Over 400,000 international and domestic tourists visit the area each month. These tourists bring critical revenue to the Hengchun Peninsula supporting
livelihoods and infrastructure. At the same time, rising tourism increases overfishing, water pollution, and coastal development, all of which damage marine biodiversity. Locals need both economic development and natural integrity, but how?
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25
„In the past, policy makers tended to focus on either growth or conservation to the
detriment of both. Natural resource economics helps us understand ecosystems in monetary terms using social science--bringing our relationship with nature into the realm of financial planning. Once we know an ecosystem’s value, we can find appropriate legal settlements, reprioritize development goals, and help raise public awareness for better conservation. No ecosystem needs more protection right now than coral reefs, the beating heart of
Kenting.”(Maynard, 2015)
So, what can one actually see if travels there? Devastation. Empty villages. Polluted coastal waters and dirty beaches.
(A huge pile of trash I photographed at Kenting’s beach)
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26 (Extremely polluted water at Houbihu’s beach)
(Ruins of a local estate on the main street of Houbihu)
This is what is visible from the outside. A look of a paradise, that once shined, but now it is just a shade of its former past. Going through some of these places like Houwan(後灣) feels earthcrushingly suprising.
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27 (Houwan / Back Bay /後灣)
This village is located right next to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, yet looks like one of the most abandoned places I’ve visited in Hengchun. It has a few
“rooms to let” signs and a café, that wasn’t open when we visited (Saturday afternoon). The main street was totally empty except for a pack of sickly dogs lying on the concrete. It felt completely wrong, since the village is so close to one of the most highly rated touristical resorts. Later that day we saw a few tourists walking around, but yet no shops, restaurants or entertainment is nearby. This is one of the most coral rich areas with a beautiful scenery and a nice hike nearby( Mt. Guishan / Turtle mountain / 龜山).
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28 (A view on the main street of Houwan)
(A dog left alone on the seashore at Houwan)
Why is this happening- I asked my guide (Nathaniel Maynard) while we were there. He couldn’t reply. This phenomenon to me as a foreigner feels utterly strangle, since this beautiful area seems to be abandoned without any organized effort to change things right.
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29 What are the things that could turn things back to normal? At this point it is clear, that tourism can’t benefit the locals if they are not aware of how to grasp them. How can tourism change the picture? To understand the possible solutions, first with the help of the coral laboratory assistance, I wanted to understand why corals are so important for the eco-system and what can they do to accelerate the touristic demands of the area.
This is a spreadsheet that shows the distribution of benefits in the entire Hengchun Peninsula. It is easy to see the uneven distribution of values, which means that the top benefitters are the government, the tourists and the academic institutions. This is something that only an entire organized attempt could change.
(Slide from Nathaniel Maynard Final presentation at FSE, Taipei, 2015.)
What hold the highest value? What could be the fortune of the local people? What do they have to do, in order to step ahead from the past? They need to develop a way to utilize
“their” corals for themselves. In the following section I am indicating the importance of these creatures and also dangers and hazards that they are facing.
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So what is a coral exactly? They are made up of millions of small polyps, that could be split into two categories: hard and soft. Hard corals form a solid calcium skeleton and with time, these grow into reefs: some are small and some are very large such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Soft corals have at least eight feathery tentacles and typically a flexible skeleton(unlike the hard coral’s). „Similar to plants, both types use photosynthesis to generate sugar, and they also collect nutrients from the water. The coral polyps do not photosynthesize themselves, but instead, zooxanthellae, a symbiotic bacterium residing in their tissue, do this solar conversion. When the corals become stressed, the zooxanthellae leave, which deprives the coral of energy. This causes bleaching; the coral loses its color and eventually dies. High temperatures, excessive pollution, invasive species, and acidic waters all cause coral bleaching. These factors also synergize with other threats accelerating coral loss. (Maynard, 2015)
Coral reefs
Coral reefs are formed over a long period of time. Most coral reefs form in warm, shallow sea waters and rise to or near the surface, generally in the form of a barrier reef, fringing reef, or atoll. Coral reefs grow upward from the sea floor as the polyps of new corals cement themselves to the skeletons of those below and in turn provide support for algae and other organisms whose secretions serve to bind the skeletons together. The resulting structure provides a critical habitat for a wide variety of fish and marine invertebrates. Coral reefs also protect shores against erosion by causing large waves to break and lose some of their force