Foreword for NOAA reports
Citation:
Fisher, W. Foreword for NOAA reports. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ann Arbor, MI, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
As part of EPA’s efforts to protect and restore coral reefs, a study was performed to assess the visitor use of Puerto Rico’s coral reef ecosystems. The information gained is intended to inform all decisions in the watersheds and coastal zones that might affect coral reefs regarding the importance of these reef ecosystems to social and economic values. The effort is one of several initiated by EPA to better characterize the value of coral reefs to recreation/tourism, food supply (commercial fishing and consumptive recreational fishing), ornamentals (aquarium trade), pharmaceuticals and other marine natural products, and property protection from storms. Surveys were conducted primarily at airports to capture visitor frequency, purpose, and willingness to pay for coral reef attributes in Puerto Rico. Attributes were derived from a variety of stakeholder engagement workshops, and led to estimates of coral reef ecosystem value (for visitors only) under a variety of different coral reef conditions (good, fair, poor) as defined by attribute levels. For example, it was estimated from the willingness-to-pay data that restoring reefs from status quo to ‘medium’ condition could increase visitor expenditures in Puerto Rico by $92 million per year; and to ‘high’ condition by $249M per year. Understanding the value of improved reef condition is expected to raise awareness of decision-makers, regulators, and communities in Puerto Rico on the importance of reefs and potentially garner support for greater protection and restoration efforts.
Description:
The report is a six volume series on the socioeconomics of visitor use of Puerto Rico’s coral reef ecosystems. EPA is developing decision-support tools to evaluate restoration alternatives in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. The decision support tools include consideration or assessment of different ecosystem services (benefits humans receive from coral reef ecosystems), such as recreation and tourism. This study was limited to visitor use (tourism); future studies are planned to address resident’s use of Puerto Rico’s coral reefs. Volume 1 presents a socioeconomic profile of reef using visitors to Puerto Rico. Estimates are presented on the total amount of visitation measured in person-trips (visits) and intensity of visitation measured in person-days. Separate estimates are provided by season (summer and winter). Extensive profiles are presented on activity participation for reef using activities and non-reef using activities for visitors. An extensive set of appendix tables provides details by activity type, region and season. Puerto Rico was divided into five regions for estimation of activity use. Volume 2 addresses the economic contribution/impact of visitor reef user’s expenditures on the Puerto Rican economy. Estimates of total visitor spending by category are used to estimate the impact of these expenditures on the Puerto Rican economy in terms of output/sales, valued-added (gross regional product), income and employment, including multiplier or “ripple effects” of the spending by reef using visitors. Volume 3 addresses importance-satisfaction ratings by reef using visitors on 25 natural resource attributes, facilities and services. The importance-performance four-quadrant analysis is used to place items as to their relative importance and satisfaction. Volume 4 is a technical appendix detailing the sampling methods and estimation for items measured and presented in Volumes 1 to 3. Volume 5 provides details on sampling methodologies, sample weighting, questionnaire and experimental design, model estimations and use of the model in estimating the economic value of attributes under different scenarios. Volumes 6 presents results for example scenarios using the estimation models.
