SOCIOECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN FOR MARINE BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION: EVIDENCE FROM COASTAL BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The joint effect of socioeconomic characteristics and environmental concern on public for marine biodiversity conservation in coastal area of Balochistan, Pakistan is investigated in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 410 respondents from five coastal localities of Balochistan. The data was analyses using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis and binary logistic regression. The overall results indicate that concern about the environment is moderate, with significant differences among the age, marital status, beach-visitation groups and household income categories. Three worldviews in relation to the environment were detected: Human domination of Nature, Anti-anthropocentrism and Limits to Growth. The logistic regression shows that a person's age, marital status and household income are the most significant socioeconomic factors influencing WTP, and that environmental attitudes support their financial commitment to conservation after these factors are controlled for. The model has an adequate explanatory power of a significant proportion of the WTP (Nagelkerke R² = 0.742). The study finds that the combination of socioeconomic factors and environmental worldview explains the willingness to pay for the conservation of marine biodiversity in Balochistan and proposes a concept of financing conservation efforts based on income-generating strategies and community-based methods along with targeted environmental education initiatives.