The Korean government has been carrying out the marine ranch development project since 1998 with the purpose of responding to the decrease in coastal fishery resources and fishery income, preparing a systematic management system for the sustainable use of fishery resources and realizing advanced fisheries power by expanding and upgrading fisheries resource development projects. In addition, the government established the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency and promoted projects for the protection and management of fishery resources by increasing basic productivity by artificially creating marine forests in areas where whitening events occur. Since the project of building marine ranches and marine forests requires immense government financial support, it is important to estimate the economic value and thoroughly evaluate the feasibility of the project. In this paper, the project of non-market economic value of the development of marine ranches and the development of marine forests was estimated. CVM (Contingent Valuation Method) was applied as a methodology for benefits estimation. Prior to the analysis, a one-on-one interview survey was conducted with participation of 512 residents and 514 residents respectively for the project of creating a marine ranch and developing a marine forest. A DBDC (Double-Bounded Dichotumous Choice) model was applied in the WTP (Willingness To Pay) analysis model and the socioeconomic variables of the surveyor, such as sex, age, education and income, were reflected in the model. The economic benefits from the two projects, namely, building of marine ranches and developing marine forests were estimated to be equal to 4,608 won and 7,772 won per household per year, respectively. According to the results of the survey, it seems that respondents think that marine forests are more valuable than marine ranches. This is as a result of ordinary citizens’ thought that the marine ranches are more cost-effective than the marine forests. The benefits estimated through this study can be used for analysis of economic feasibility prior to carrying out the project of building marine ranches and developing marine forests, and are considered to be the valuable for policy-making purposes and finding social and economic consensus.

인천연안은 인천광역시, 경기도 김포시·시흥시·안산시 일대로, 양식장에서 발생하는 쓰레기, 어업활동 후 버려진 어구·어망, 육상에서부터 한강을 타고 흘러오는 쓰레기 때문에 인천연안의 해양생태계의 변화가 우려되고 있다. 인천연안이 심각하게 오염되자 해양수 산부는 인천연안을 특별관리해역으로 지정하여 해양환경 자산인 해역수질을 보존하고 있다. 이러한 배경 하에서 본 연구는 인천연안 해역수질의 비시장 가치를 선택실험법(choice experiment)을 이용하여 평가한다. 이를 위해, 전국 1,000 가구를 대상으로 면대면 설문조사를 실시하였고, 속성 각각의 한계지불의사액(MWTP, marginal willingness to pay)을 추정한다. 인천연안 해역수질의 속성별 가치(가구당 연간 한 계지불의사액)를 추정한 결과, 가구당 연간 해역수질 1%p 개선의 MWTP는 75원, 동물종의 다양성 증가의 MWTP는 135원, 식물종 다양성 증가의 MWTP는 309원, 해양쓰레기 1%p 저감의 MWTP는 72원으로 나타났다. 모든 추정결과는 유의수준 1 %에서 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 본 논문의 주요 결과는 정책당국에 해양환경 관리정책 수립과 평가에 유용하게 활용될 수 있다.