What do we know about public acceptance of designating marine protected area? The case of Jaran Bay in South Korea

The Role of Social License in Non-Industrial Marine and Coastal Planning: a Scoping Review

Marine and coastal environments are diverse and dynamic, supporting competing human interests and demands. As society seeks to balance contested uses of space, more holistic planning processes have emerged, which consider social, economic, and ecological factors. One approach that considers social factors, and more specifically social acceptance, is "social license to operate" (SLO). Originating in the terrestrial mining industry, SLO has been adopted by various marine industries. Except for some emerging work in the conservation field, SLO is typically applied to industrial marine and coastal contexts. To understand SLO's uses in other marine and coastal planning contexts, namely conservation, adaptation, and restoration, we conducted a scoping review using the term SLO and similar concepts, including public or social acceptance, support, and buy-in. Results indicate the concept of SLO is still emerging in non-industrial marine and coastal planning, with an emphasis on gaining public acceptance rather than maintaining it. The concept of SLO was applied broadly, including as a measurement for public support and a product of effective engagement. Most publications focused on barriers and drivers of SLO. Influential factors are identified and organized by theme, then discussed based on their relationships within a social-ecological system framework. Considering the common factors and their associated systems helps to link elements necessary to obtain SLO, highlighting their interconnectedness with each other, society, and the natural environment. The findings of this review illustrate SLO's utility for academics and practitioners alike, through its application in methods, tools, values, and concepts that characterize public inclusion for marine and coastal planning.

Public willingness to pay for eradicating a harmful marine organism: the case of Aurelia aurita in South Korea

Aurelia aurita (AA), a legally registered harmful marine organism in South Korea, is damaging marine human leisure activities, local residents' tourism income, fisheries, and cooling water intake at power plants. The government is therefore seeking to eradicate AA by removing AA-attached larvae (polyps). This article looks into the public willingness to pay (WTP) for the eradication, utilizing a contingent valuation. For the sake of eliciting the WTP response, the one-and-one-half-bounded (OB) model was adopted. For comparison, the single-bounded (SB) model, which uses only the response to the first question in the OB model, was also applied. A spike model with a considerable plausibility that could explicitly deal with zero WTP responses was employed. Consequently, the estimation results of the SB model were used for further policy analysis. The household average WTP was estimated as KRW 3,911 (USD 3.49) per year, securing statistical significance. The national value was KRW 80.46 billion (USD 71.71 million) per annum. This figure can be interpreted as public value of the AA eradication project and used as essential basic data to evaluate the economic feasibility of implementing the project. Some factors such as income and education level significantly positively affected the intention of paying a suggested bid.

Environmental conservation value of an endangered species: the case of Cypripedium Japonicum

The South Korean government is seeking information on the environmental conservation value (ECV) of Cypripedium japonicum, a plant on the first-level priority endangered species list of the Korea Ministry of Environment, as well as on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This research paper aims to assess the ECV by employing contingent valuation (CV) to elicit people's willingness to pay (WTP) for its conservation. To achieve this aim, in May 2020, a CV survey of 1,000 interviewees in South Korea was carried out employing a closed-ended question. The average household WTP is estimated to be KRW 3,770 (USD 3.07) per annum and secures statistical significance. From a national point of view, using information on the national population, this value comes to KRW 76.72 billion (USD 62.42 million) per year. Although the cost of conserving the species has not yet been accurately estimated, the ECV seems to be larger than the cost of conservation. Thus, it is socially desirable to conserve Cypripedium japonicum, and the conservation should be carried out in a stable and continuous manner.