Ecotourism: An alternative solution for socio-ecological crisis in Pahawang Island, Indonesia

This title will be presented on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 14.05-14.15 GMT+7

Abstract

This title will be presented on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 14.05-14.15 GMT+7

Pahawang Island is one of the islands in Lampung Province having high biodiversity but is very vulnerable to environmental issues. Pahawang Island has experienced severe environmental degradations due to exploitative and destructive economic activities that damaged its mangrove and coral reef ecosystems. Ecotourism is a solution for restoring the coral reef and mangrove ecosystems on Pahawang Island. This study aims to determine the economic value of ecotourism activities on Pahawang Island. The method used to analyze the economic value of Pahawang Island ecotourism activities is the Travel Cost Method (TCM). Based on the analysis results, the Pahawang Island tourist attraction has an economic valuation of IDR 2,206,325,761.07 per year. This value indicates that Pahawang Island has benefits as a producer of tourism services, where these benefits can be felt in a sustainable manner if the existence of the Pahawang Island tourist attraction area is maintained by preserving the various potential tourism resources within it, both natural, environmental, human as well as socio-cultural resources of the community.