Abstract:
Hat Chao Mai National Park is an important conservation to be preserved for the
benefit of tourism and to remain in order to maintain a balanced ecosystem. In the past, the importance of ecosystem services of Hat Chao Mai National Park is realized, which is of great value to the economy. This is the concept of evaluating the economic value of ecosystems and natural resources to lead to policy-based management approaches to generating income or payment for ecosystem services. Thus, the objective of this research is to assess the benefits of recovered ecosystem services from the closure of Hat Chao Mai National Park and assess the possibility of providing additional sources of income from the benefits of ecoservices to support the recovery of natural resources. Questionnaire was used to collect quantitative information about the benefits of ecotourism ecosystem services and increased willingness to pay in case of national park closures. The sample were the tourists who travel and use the service to Chao Mai Beach and local people. The sample group consisted of 320 people. Data were analyzed with Choice Experiment to determine factors affecting probabilities of choosing an alternative package to assess the economic benefits of Hat Chao Mai National Park's natural resource recovery for tourism and the community economy. The results of the research found that most of the tourists were employees of private companies and most of the people in the area are engaged in agriculture and fishery sectors. The attitude towards conservation of natural resources showed that the sample group had a high level of agreement for investment in protecting natural resources, allow children to be able to take advantage of those natural resources and the government should increase the budget to implement projects or planning on the environment of Thailand. This group accounted for 26.60% of the total knew about the policy concept of natural resource recovery. However, they agree with the policy idea of natural resource recovery, require to close the park for natural resources recovery for 3 months and know the policy concepts of natural resource recovery. In addition, the samples were aware of the ecological value at a high level. accounted for 76.90%, but the sample group perceived that Hat Chao Mai National Park was registered as an ASEAN Heritage, only 41.90% of the total sample group. When classified according to the main objectives of activities in the Hat Chao Mai National Park, it was found that the samples who entered the economic activities paid the most attention to sea grass. The samples who came to nature trails in Hat Chao Mai National Park paid the most attention to coral reefs. The samples who came to scuba diving to give priority to the deep sea. The samples who came to snorkeling to give the greatest importance to the coral and the samples who took vacations on the island/cave in Hat Chao Mai National Park paid the most attention to coral reefs. In addition, if the attributes of Hat Chao Mai National Park include the abundance of economic animals, the beauty of the beach, the beauty of life under the sea and the quantity of dugongs and sea turtles change
in the level of improvement after natural resource recovery. The value of willingness to pay
will increase, including 516.31, 354.84, 424.82 and 493.93 baht per year, respectively.
Moreover, the opportunities and possibilities for the financial channel to be a source of
income should be paid directly to the Natural Resources Restoration Fund.