Recreational Value of Mount Arayat National Park PDF

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INTRODUCTION I.

Background Information Philippines is a biodiversity-rich country. To protect and conserve the richness and

integrity of our biodiversity, several protected areas haven been designated. By definition, protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with Page 1 of 31

associated ecosystem services and cultural values (IUCN Definition, 2008). And one of its categories is the National Parks. In 2012, there were 240 protected areas in the country, wherein 35 were under the category of National Parks. The number of National Parks increased to 94 in 2018, with the enactment of Republic Act No. 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (ENIPAS). Mount Arayat National Park (MArNP) is the lone national park in the Province of Pampanga and one of the National Parks under the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) or Republic Act No. 7586. It is straddles on the Municipality of Arayat on the south western side and Municipality of Magalang in the north eastern side. Officially, National Park is defined as “forest land reservation essentially of primitive or wilderness character which has been withdrawn from settlement or occupancy and set aside as such exclusively to preserve the scenery, the natural and historic objects and the wild animals or plants therein, and to provide enjoyment of these features in such a manner as will leave them unimpaired for future generations (www.lawphil.net). Thus, the two core functions of National Parks are biodiversity conservation and cultural uses. Historically, earliest record of conservation efforts on Mount Arayat was dated as early as 1921 when it was established as a forest reserve through Proclamation No. 40. The mountain was officially designated as a National Park in 1933, through Presidential Proclamation No. 594 by then President Manuel Quezon. An amended version was issued which was the Proclamation No. 203 of 1997 which set the current area of the park to 3,715 hectares. Out of the total area, 2,916 hectares is classified as multiple-use zone while 799 hectares is under the strict protected zone. The multiple use zone, technically is consists of “areas where the following may be allowed consistent with the protected area management plan: settlement, traditional and/or sustainable land-use, including agriculture, agro-forestry,

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and other income generating or livelihood activities. It shall also include, among others, areas of high recreational tourism, educational or environmental awareness values and areas consisting of existing installations of national significance/interest such as development of renewable energy sources, telecommunication facilities and electric power lines”. In short, it is the area inside the national park wherein anthropogenic activities are allowed, but under approval of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB). On the other hand, strict protection zone is define as “natural areas with high biodiversity value, closed to all human activities except for scientific studies and/or ceremonial or religious use by the Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICC)/ Indigenous People (IP). It may include habitats of threatened species, or degraded areas that have been designated for restoration and subsequent protection, even if these areas are still in various stages of regeneration”. Hence, strict protected zone, on the other hand, refers to those areas inside the national park that are strictly set aside for biodiversity conservation and cultural integrity conservation, and thus destructive human activities are prohibited. To boost its development for tourism and the conservation of aesthetic character, Mount Arayat was declared a tourist sport by the virtue of Republic Act No. 7690 in 1997. Under this act, the Department of Tourism, in coordination with other government agencies concerned, shall prepare a development plan this purpose. In terms of management, the management of a specific national park is devolved to the Protected Area Management Board or PAMB. The PAMB is a multi-sectoral governing board chaired by the representative from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and composed of representatives from the local governments, other government agencies, people’s organizations, and non-government organizations. The core members of the PAMB-MArNP are the representatives of the local government units of Arayat and Magalang including the barangay captains of the barangays that are within the boundary of MArNP, the chairman of

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the recognized People’s Organization, and a representative from Pampanga State Agricultural University. One of the sources of fund of the management of national parks is the Integrated Protected Areas Fund (IPAF). It is a trust fund which shall finance the implementation of the projects as identified in the management plan formulated by the PAMB. The sources of funds can be from the fees and income generated from the operation of protected area and from the solicitations and donations. As per distribution, seventy-five percent of the revenues generated by a certain protected area shall be used to for its development and maintenance while the remaining twenty-five percent shall go to the national fund which shall be reallocated for the development and maintenance of other protected areas. This case study was conducted to estimate one of the ecosystem services provided by MArNP which is the recreation use value. This study aimed to integrate ecosystem service valuation in formulating a decision-framework for the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) in assessing trade-offs related to the development of ecotourism of the national park.

II.

Related Literatures

Classification of Ecosystem Services Ecosystems either aquatic, marine or terrestrial, provides us various set of good and services through the interaction of its components. And this good and services which we are consuming, enjoying or utilizing to make other goods and services-is what is termed as ecosystem services. The life-supporting functions played by various ecosystems refer to as

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ecosystem services, as well. In other words, ecosystems services are the benefits derived by humans from nature. Ecosystem services may either be classified as use or non-use values under the total economic value framework. Use values refer to the value of ecosystem services that are used by humans for consumption or production purposes. It includes tangible and intangible services of ecosystems that are either used directly or indirectly or that have a potential future use. Thus use values can further be classified as direct use, indirect use and option use value. On the other hand, non- use values or also termed as passive use value, are the value human put in nature or ecosystem even they do not have an intension of consuming or utilizing the resource in whatsoever purposes. There are two common classifications of nonuse values, and these are the existence value and the bequest value. Existence value is defined as the value human put in a resource by knowing that it exist and will exist in long period of time. Bequest value, meanwhile, is the value human put in a resource knowing that it will be available for use, enjoyment or even provide non-use benefits for future generation.

Fig. 1. The Total Economic Framework and classification of ecosystem services (Adopted from Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005).

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A more contemporary classification of ecosystem services was presented by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. In this classification, ecosystems services were divided into four categories namely Provisioning Services, Regulating services, Supporting services and Cultural services. Provisioning services are ecosystem services that describe as the materials or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources that can be collected from an ecosystem. On the other hand, regulating services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators such as regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control, and even pollution control. Cultural services meanwhile are the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience. And lastly, the supporting services which refers to the ecosystem services that are necessary for the maintenance of all other ecosystem services. Some examples include biomass production, production of atmospheric oxygen, soil formation and retention, nutrient cycling, water cycling, and provisioning of habitat.

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Fig. 2. Classification of ecosystem services adopted from The Economics of Environment and Biodivesity (Source: Park, S., S. Sharon & S. Attwood (2013).

The Ecosystem Services Provided by MArNP Mount Arayat is a terrestrial ecosystem that provides and covers a wide array of ecosystem services mentioned above, both use and non-use, and covers all the provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. However, the discussion below only covers some of the salient ecosystem services provided by MArNP. The mountain has been long recognized as habitat for a number of endemic and endangered fauna and flora, particularly Cycas ruminiana or Arayat Pitogo. Arayat Pitogo is an endangered and endemic species which naturally grow in the mountains of Zambales and Pampanga with the most number of individuals located in Mount Arayat National Park. The national park is home to 49 species of trees and plants; 86 species of wild birds; 14 species of mammals; and 11 species of reptiles according to the survey conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) (Sunstar Pampanga, 2019). With this, MArNP plays a crucial role habitat for a population of critical species of plants and animals. The biodiversity conservation function of MArNP can be classified as a non-use value, yet, one of the core functions of a national park. This National Park is also a well-known recreation site for local and foreign tourist offering hiking, camping, biking and swimming as recreational activities. The Magalang-side and the Arayat-side are managed by two different People ’s Organization (PO). In addition, the two sides of the mountains offer different set of recreational activities. In Magalang-side, most common recreational activity are hiking and camping, and the popul ar tourist destinations are the “Station of the Cross”, White Rock and North Peak. On the other hand, in Arayat side, hiking, biking and swimming can be enjoyed. Most common destinations are the South Peak,

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and the Resort Area. Tourist can also traverse from Magalang Jump-off point to Arayat or vice versa. In addition to the roles the national parks plays as mentioned above, national park also serve as a an integral carbon sink. In fact, carbon sequestration, the ability and the capacity of an organism or ecosystem to capture and store carbon element, is an important ecosystem service provided by protected areas, especially in the context of global warming and climate change. Aside from these, Mount Arayat also caters livelihood activities such as farming in multipleuse zones, in particular. Recent survey shows that more than 500 farmers are cultivating portions of Mount Arayat (Sunstar Pampanga, 2019). It also serves as places for scientific research, educational, spiritual and cultural activities. In one study of the faculty of Pampanga State Agricultural University (PSAU) they have identified several plants that have ethno botanical value for the community, particularly for medicinal purposes.

Valuation of Recreation Use Value There are several ways to value ecosystem services. In general, it can be classified into market-based approach, revealed preference method and stated preference method. Recreation use value can be estimated using any of the three approaches. However, the most common method established in capturing the economic value of recreational use value is under the revealed preference technique called the Travel Cost Method (TCM). TCM is an economic valuation used to calculate the value of some goods or services that cannot be obtained through market prices such as forest parks, ecosystems, beaches, etc. It is called a revealed preference method, because actual behaviour and choices are used to account the environmental values (Mohammadi et al., 2014). It assumes that the value of a site is

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reflected by how many people are willing to pay to get there and the respective cost of travel and time incurred to visit that price. There are three types of travel cost methods that can be used in estimating recreational value of a recreational site. These are the Zonal Travel Cost Method (ZTCM), Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM) and the Random Utility Approach (www.ecosystemvaluation.org). Each method have each own advantages and disadvantages in terms of data collection and analysis, but all can result to reliable estimate of the recreational use value depending on the quality and extent of data provided and proper statistical analysis. The zonal travel cost method is the simplest and least expensive approach among the choices, since it uses mostly secondary data, with some simple data collected from visitors. It can estimate the recreational value of a recreational area as a whole, or an specific recreational destination on the site. However, some of the main weaknesses is that it is seldom used to value a change in quality of recreation for a site, and may not consider other factors, such as the socio-demographic characteristics of the visitors, in analyzing the determinants of value. The zonal travel cost method is applied by collecting information on the number of visits to the site from different zone. Thus, visitors are group into zones. Zoning can be done using concentric circles or by defining the geographic location of the origin of the visitors. The cost of travel and cost of time of the visitors per zone will be used to construct the demand function for the site, and estimate economic benefits (consumer surplus) of the recreational services of the site. The individual travel cost approach, unlike the zonal approach uses a more detailed survey data from individual visitors rather than data from each zone. This method requires more intensive data collection and more complicated analysis, but considered as a more reliable method in estimating recreational value. Since individual survey is employed, it gives way to incorporate a detailed iteration of the cost the visitors incurred during the travel and the

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socio-demographic information that may affect the individuals’ visitation. Perception and motivational questions may also be incorporated in the survey as variables for the analysis that would in turn provide a more comprehensive result. Significant factors will then be incorporated into the regression model to come up with the demand function. The random utility approach, on the other hand, is the most complicated and expensive of the travel cost approaches. It main advantage of this method is that it allows for much more flexibility in calculating social benefits. Unlike ZTCM and ITCM, it is being used to estimate benefits for quality changes of sites or a specific characteristic of a site, rather than for the site as a whole. It is usually used in estimating recreational use values of recreational areas with one or substitutes. The concept that underpins tis method is that the individuals will pick the site that they prefer, out of all possible choices, such that individuals make tradeoffs between site quality and the price of travel to the site.

III.

Significance of the Study

It has been recognized that Mount Arayat National Park provides a variety of essential ecosystems services. However, these ecosystem services were not yet measured and accounted. Likewise, several anthropogenic activities brought by economic and political issues tend to threaten the integrity of the natural park, and the ecosystem services provide as well. Issues on upland farmers with no tenurial instruments, allegation of charcoal making using slash and burn technique and encroachment are some of the environmental threats that DENR are looking into. In addition to this, the environmental and economic impact of increasing visitation in MArNP has not yet being given high emphasis.

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For a better decision-making process, the PAMB-MArNP must a structured-framework that establishes the trade-off between and among management policies and development plans. And since MArNP is established for the core function of biodiversity conservation and subsequently supply cultural services, management decision may be always towards this agenda. However, it is also evident that MArNP provide other essential ecosystem services such as livelihood and recreation. The potential of MArNP to support the local, regional and national economy is in place. Thus, the PAMB-MArNP must see how the society will gain, in a Pareto Optimal condition and without scarifying the core function of MArNP as a national park, in any policy and development options that they take. Cost-benefit analysis is one of the possible framework that the PAMB-MArNP may work-on in establishing a decision making tool for the management of Mount Arayat National Park. In this framework, ecosystem valuation is an integral part. In this case study, only the valuation of the recreational use value for the hiking activity was being explored. Yet, it was recognized that there should be a lot more ecosystem services that should be incorporated and accounted to come-up with a good baseline data for a reliable CBA framework. In terms of socio-economic benefit to the local and regional community, recreational use is one of the most important ecosystem services MArNP provide. Thus, establishing its economic value of this particular ecosystem service is vital for is management. The results of this study would be an initial step in incorporating economics to the management of the MArNP and prospective input for CBA analysis. It would allow better understanding on how much people value the park, and what tourist spots or activity, in particular, contributes much to its value. This can be used by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), the official group of stakeholders managing the National Park, as basis to which development alternative would provide higher social cost or not. In addition, it could

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also be a basis for a better allocation of the Integrated Protected Area Fund (IPAF) for conservation and protection by identifying highly-demanded and critical spots.

IV.

Research Objectives The main objective of this case study is to estimate the economic value of recreational

activities in Mount Arayat National Park (MArNP). Specifically, this study aims to: 1. Identify and categorize MArNP’s main recreational sites and activities; 2. Determine and quantify the recreation demand curve for MArNP; 3. Estimate the total economic benefit from MArNP’s recreational activities; 4. Recommend strategies to improve recreational services in selected tourist spots.

METHODOLOGY Research Site Mt. Arayat is an inactive stratovolcano in the Eastern Bataan Lineament located at 15.2°N, 120.74°E in the Province of Pampanga, Philippines (Phivolcs, 2019). Its total land area straddling the towns of Arayat and Magalang, Pampanga is 3, 715 hectares with 2, 916 hectares of multiple use zone and 799 hectares of strict protection zone. Figure 2.1 shows the map of Mt. Arayat. The north peak rises at the height of 1, 026 meters above sea level and south peak rises at 1, 008 meters asl (Flora, 2018). Found between the north an...