Citation: Sengkhamyong, X.; Yabar, H.; Mizunoya, T. Assessing Household Willingness to Pay for the Conservation of the Phou Chom Voy Protected Area in Lao PDR. Sustainability 2022, 14, 11202. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su141811202 Academic Editor: Jeroen Meersmans Received: 8 August 2022 Accepted: 3 September 2022 Published: 7 September 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Assessing Household Willingness to Pay for the Conservation of the Phou Chom Voy Protected Area in Lao PDR Xaysompheng Sengkhamyong 1 , Helmut Yabar 2 and Takeshi Mizunoya 2, * 1 Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305–8572, Japan 2 Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305–8572, Japan * Correspondence: mizunoya.takeshi.ff@u.tsukuba.ac.jp Abstract: This study aimed to examine whether local residents were willing to pay (WTP) for the improvement of the Phou Chom Voy Protected Area (PCV PA), by using the hypothetical scenario framework of the contingent valuation method. We interviewed a sample of 365 local residents. Among the respondents, 271 were willing to pay to maintain the protected area. Most residents who refused to pay had low incomes and stated that they did not want to increase their monthly expenses by contributing to the conservation fund. The estimated mean willingness to pay among the respondents who expressed the maximum willingness to pay for natural forest conservation because of its natural value and attractiveness for tourism was Lao Kip (LAK) 27,055/year. The aggregate willingness to pay for the protected area improvement was approximately LAK 93 million. The logit regression results revealed that age, education level, annual household income, and attitude toward conservation significantly influenced willingness to pay. The results of this study provide insights into applying willingness to pay in sustainable financing, to develop market-based conser- vation approaches in protected areas, thus reducing ongoing biodiversity losses and maintaining natural resources. Keywords: willingness to pay; Phou Chom Voy Protected Area; contingent valuation method 1. Introduction “Protected areas” (PAs) are clearly defined geographical locations that are recognized, devoted, and managed, either legally or by other effective measures, for long-term nature conservation, including ecological services and cultural values [1]. Many PAs are also managed to reduce poverty and encourage sustainable development [2]. The forested area of PAs worldwide has increased by 191 million hectares since 1990 and has recently been estimated at 726 million hectares [3]. However, many PAs lack financial stability and, ac- cordingly, cannot accomplish conservation or development goals [2]. While approximately 12% of PAs are established, only 25–30% of them are under active management. Notably, the rapid increase in the number of PAs has limited core funding [4]. This study focused on a protected area in Lao PDR. Laos is broadly located in the Asia- Pacific region, where the majority of tropical forests and wild animal habitats can be found. This region has 35,475 PAs; however, only 2825 of them have been subject to management effectiveness evaluations [5]. Southeast Asian countries, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, are home to nearly 15% of the world’s tropical forests and are rich in biodiversity [6]. Southeast Asia has approximately 607 PAs, which comprise approximately 395,768 km 2 [5]. Laos is one of Southeast Asia’s least-developed and natural-resource-rich countries. It is mainly rural, and its residents’ livelihoods directly depend substantially on natural resources [7]. In 1993, the government established protected areas, which covered approxi- mately 43,220 km 2 or 18.69% of the nation’s terrestrial and inland-water protected areas, including three national parks, 20 national PAs, one Association of Southeast Asian Nations Sustainability 2022, 14, 11202. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811202 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability