Economic evaluation of marine protected areas: methodological contributions and applications to the Kuriat Islands (Tunisia).

Summary The protection of natural marine resources is a major issue for public decision makers. The recent development of marine protected areas (MPAs) contributes to these preservation issues. The objectives of MPAs are to conserve marine and coastal ecosystems while promoting human activities. The complexity of these objectives makes them difficult to achieve. The objective of this thesis is to conduct an ex ante analysis of an MPA project in the Kuriat Islands (Tunisia). This analysis represents an aid to decision-makers for a better governance by integrating the involved actors (fisherman, visitor, yachtsman) in the management process. To do this, we apply the contingent valuation method (CVM) to samples of fishermen and visitors to the Kuriat Islands. We are interested in the treatment of selection and sampling biases and uncertainty in the specification of econometric models when implementing CEM. We use the HeckitBMA model,which is a combination of the Heckman (1979) model and Bayesian inference, to calculate fishermen's willingness to receive. We also use the Zero inflated ordered probit (ZIOP) model, which is a combination of a binary probit with an ordered probit, to calculate visitors' willingness to pay after correcting the sample by multiple imputation. Our results show that stakeholder groups differ in their activity and economic status which leads them to have different perceptions. This allows decision makers to develop a compensation policy to compensate the harmed actors.