3.1. The Lastovo Island Marine Park and Changes of Management for Marine Biodiversity Conservation
Given “an era of economic crisis and geopolitical instability” some years ago, marine conservation in the Mediterranean Sea is still considered a particular challenge ([
26], p. 31). Marine and coastal habitats and in total some 10,000 isles and islands require protection and effective frameworks for sustainable development, balancing both ecological restoration and conservation, and (eco-) tourism. The whole Lastova Archipelago (Croatia) is one of these sites.
The archipelago was declared a protected area in 2006 as the eleventh nature park in Croatia due to its outstanding landscape values, such as thick forests and fertile fields rich with ponds, high coastal cliffs, land and sea caves, numerous rare terrestrial and marine species and habitats, exceptional purity of the sea and rich cultural and historical heritage (Management Plan, 2013; [
27]). It belongs to the South Dalmatian group of islands and consists of 44 islands, islets, rocks and reefs with total area of 53 km
2 of land and 143 km
2 of sea, making it the second largest marine PA (protected area) in Croatia. The largest among the islands, according to which the whole group was named, is Lastovo Island (for the location of the archipelago, see
Figure 1).
The area has a typical Mediterranean type of climate, characterized by mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. The geological basis of the Lastovo Archipelago consists of Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary layers including dolomite, dolomite limestone and pure limestone. Due to the composition of rocks, small land areas and the climate, the Lastovo Archipelago does not have permanent inland water streams, but the fertility of fields is increased by their ability of retaining the moisture, which is particularly important for agriculture.
The park represents one of the richest and best preserved botanical areas in the Mediterranean, determined by the isolation of the open sea, plenty of sunlight, night humidity and deep soil. The sea of the Archipelago is strongly influenced by the South Adriatic deep waters. The sea transparency (visibility) level is one of the highest recorded of all in the Adriatic Sea. Frequent rise of deep water rich with nutrients (“upwelling”) results in an inflow of mesoplanktonic and deep-sea species. This diversity of planktonic organisms causes a huge variety of benthic organisms. There are 248 species of marine flora, 330 species of marine invertebrates and 150 species of fish recorded in the area, as well as several dolphin and marine turtle species.
The continuity of life on the Lastovo Island can be traced back to the Early Bronze Age resulting in the numerous protected cultural heritage sites. The intangible cultural heritage of Lastovo Archipelago is, for instance, Lastovo Carnival (celebrated in continuity from the Middle Ages, protected as non-material cultural good) and the Statute of Lastovo (a book of rules and customs adopted at a public gathering 700 years ago).
Currently, there are close to 800 residents with a trend towards out-migration recorded in the Park. The main traditional activities of Lastovo inhabitants are agriculture, with grapevines and olive trees as dominant cultivated plants, and fishery as a traditionally important source of income for the local population. There are 45 fishermen authorized for traditional fishing and 80 authorized for traditional small-scale fishing within the Park. The development of Lastovo’s tourism started after the Croatian independence due to the fact that the area was a strong military base during Yugoslavia times. Formerly, access was banned for foreign tourists. Today, (international) tourism is becoming increasingly important for the local and regional economy. Tourism in the area is based on the good climate, preserved natural and historical heritage, great distance from the mainland making it a peaceful and quiet destination, quality accommodation, local food, vines, and diverse opportunities for recreational activities (e.g., hiking, cycling, swimming, scuba diving, snorkeling, recreational fishing, kayaking). The tourist season starts in May and ends in October, with peaks in July and August.
There are basically two groups of visitors coming to the Lastovo Archipelago: visitors coming by car, train, bus, or otherwise and further connecting via public ferry or fast boat (called ‘group A visitors’ in this paper); and visitors (sailors) coming by private or rented boats (called ‘group B visitors’). Accommodation is provided in one hotel (three stars), private apartments, camps and lighthouses. For sailors (group B visitors), there are three mooring sites for boats on the main island, one in front of a hotel and two in front of restaurants. Two diving centers offer diving trips to a number of unique diving locations. In 2013, Lastovo Archipelago recorded a total of 39,788 overnight stays, and 5416 visitors’ arrivals. The first daily counting of (private) boats (excluding ferries) conducted in 2012 recorded 8270 boats during 122 days of counting (Lastovo Municipality Tourist Board, 2014; [
27]). In general, group B visitors (sailors) are perceived as visitors with greater purchasing power whose visits lead to significant revenues of the local economy. They also co-finance the work of public institutions by paying a certain ‘entry fee’ for accessing the area. Unfortunately, this type of private boat tourism also has major impacts on environment, mostly on
Posidonia oceanica meadows which are important habitats for various types of species. Areas with such meadows are also areas most suitable for anchoring, resulting in great human pressure on these meadows. Since
Posidonia oceanica grows very slowly, it takes a long time to recolonize once damaged or removed from the area (
www.iucnredlist.org).
The Lastovo Archipelago Nature Park is managed by a public administrative body established in 2007 by the Croatian government with the tasks of protection, maintenance, and promotion of the protected area (Croatian Nature Protection Act, OG 80/13, Article 131). The management of the park is financed mainly through the central government’s budget. Some revenues are generated from the access and use of the protected area (e.g., fishing concession license, sailors’ entry fees, recreational fishing permits, souvenirs and merchandize) and donations from various ministries, funds and foundations (Management Plan, 2013). In 2013, the total annual budget of the management authority was approximately 300,000 EUR of which 65% was contributed by the central government. The largest share of annual expenditure was personnel costs of employees (64%), capital investments (34%), and concrete nature protection programs (only 2%).
The future implementation of the recently developed management plan is expected to contribute to a more effective conservation and thus improvement of marine biodiversity, but at the same time represents a new financial challenge to the park’s management owing to a range of new conservation programs and policies. Through the mechanism of user fees, tourism and recreation may represent potentially important sources of additional revenues for the Lastovo Archipelago Nature Park.
3.2. Testable Hypotheses and the Empirical Survey
Based on the theoretical background, the research questions of the current paper presented in
Section 1, and the existing empirical literature on the management of marine protected areas in the context of travel cost and willingness-to-pay studies discussed in
Section 2, the main hypotheses of this paper to be tested are (the description of variables can be found in
Table 1):
H
1a:
TRAVELFRQGroupA ≠ TRAVELFRQGroupB
H
1b:
NIGHTSGroupA > NIGHTSGroupB
H
2:
WTPGroupA > WTPGroupB
H
3:
TRAVELFRQi and WTPi depend on a range of socio-economic, perceptional and visit-specific variables of respondents.
First, we want to address the hypothesis H1a stating that the travel frequency of group A tourists coming by car, bus or train (or other modes of transport) is substantially different to the one of group B tourists (sailors) visiting the Lastovo Islands area on their own (or rented) boats. A reason for this difference which will also be explored in the empirical part of this paper might be that sailors cross the area more regularly when cruising along the Croatian coast and thus exhibit a higher frequency of visits. In addition, we test whether group B tourists (sailors) in fact stay much shorter than other visitors as Lastovo Islands might only be a short-term anchoring point for staying overnight, than a sole destination of the whole vacations (H1b).
Second, we ascertain the respondents’ willingness-to-pay and explore differences between the two visitor groups (groups A and B). All other things being equal, we hypothesize that group A visitors express a higher willingness-to-pay than group B visitors since the latter have fewer substitutes for holiday resorts available (H2). (Sailors might just cruise to a different place/harbor if they do not like to stay at Lastovo Islands for some reason.) Thus, we hypothesize that the elasticity of demand for visits to Lastovo Islands is significantly different between the two groups of tourists.
Third, we assume that travel frequency, as well as willingness-to-pay, depend on a range of socio-economic (e.g., income, age) and trip-specific variables (e.g., length of stay, main activities in the area) in addition to variables describing environmental preferences and perceptions (e.g., environmental quality at Lastovo Islands) (H3).
In order to explore and answer the research questions, and to test the hypotheses of this paper presented above, a face-to-face survey of visitors at Lastovo Islands took place in the summer of 2013 (July and August). By means of a questionnaire, the two groups of visitors (n = 240 in total) were surveyed with respect to their travel behavior and frequency, their willingness-to-pay for biodiversity improvements, and several other dimensions describing their vacations in the archipelago area. As mentioned before, one group (group A visitors) consisted of families and individuals who came to visit Lastovo Islands by car, train, bus, or otherwise, and further connecting via public ferry or fast boat; the other group (group B visitors) consisted of sailors anchoring at one of the harbors or moored buoys in the area. In order to test for the different hypotheses described above, two empirical models are estimated.
The first model estimates the number of visits (vacations) at the Lastovo Archipelago depending on travel costs, and a range of socio-economic, ecological (site-specific) and recreation-specific variables. The model is—as described above in
Section 2—a combination of revealed and stated preferences, and is based on a pooled data set of actual travel behavior (“status quo”) and two scenarios of biodiversity conservation (see
Figure 2 for the representation of the scenarios in the questionnaire). The different scenarios were described verbally, and by means of manipulated pictures to highlight the impacts of different management scenarios on the appearance of the underwater seascape (cf. for the design and use of such scenarios [
28,
29,
30]). The model is estimated as a count data model assuming a standard negative binomial distribution (see Equation (1)).
The variables of the econometric models are presented and described in
Table 1. The second model consists of a maximum-likelihood Tobit model exploring determinants of WTP of both groups of visitors (groups A and B) with the following empirical model (Equation (2)):
For both equations, the models assume a slightly different inclusion of potentially significant explanatory variables. The vector Ti includes a range of variables describing the travel to Lastovo Islands (travel costs), and the length of stay in the area. In addition, several studies showed that the travel frequency and willingness-to-pay might significantly depend on whether a specific area is the sole destination of the whole trip.
Variables grouped by Si denote socio-economic variables such as the respondent’s household income; age; nationality; and whether the respondent i belonged to group A or B, as the demand for traveling and holidays, as well as the willingness-to-pay for biodiversity improvement, can be reasonably assumed to depend on these socio-economic variables (e.g., more frequent trips to the area, as well as, higher willingness-to-pay with higher income of households according to standard economic demand theory).
The vector Ri includes variables that describe recreation-specific attributes of the stay at Lastovo Islands; for instance, trip preferences and attitudes towards biodiversity conservation in the area may significantly depend on the kind of activities (e.g., sports), and the level of satisfaction of the whole vacations in the area.
Finally, the models include several environmental attributes of the Lastovo Islands (Ei); on the one hand, we include perceptions of respondents with respect to the protection status, and the main motive for expressing willingness-to-pay for more effective biodiversity conservation. On the other hand, this group of variables accounts for preferences regarding undisturbed nature, and the respondent’s experience with marine parks. Finally, two dummy variables denote the hypothetical realization of Scenarios 1 or 2.