Justification for change - CNMI 2016-17 survey

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

OMB Control Number 0648-0646

SOCIOECONOMICS OF CORAL REEF CONSERVATION

This request is for approval of a survey under the information collection requirement currently approved under OMB Control Number 0648-0646 “Socioeconomics of Coral Reef Conservation”. The approved information collection is part of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan and relates to Social Science and Human Dimensions monitoring. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) created the Coral Reef Conservation Program to safeguard and ensure the welfare of the coral reef ecosystems along the coastlines of America’s States and Territories. The administration of this program has potential economic and cultural impacts on the lives of nearby residents and citizens. In accordance with its mission goals, NOAA has designed surveys to provide longitudinal data about the impact of the Coral Reef Conservation Program.

NOAA has developed a jurisdictional survey instrument to be implemented in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in 2016-17. As per OMB guidelines for PRA clearance, NOAA is required to submit a justification statement of one page or less listing the questions selected from the full question bank for the jurisdictional survey instrument. This request also briefly describes the information collection venues and sampling methodology applicable to the CNMI. Please note, this change justification is the fourth such request as per previous submissions for similar survey efforts in Guam, American Samoa, Florida, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

This survey instrument has been developed for the purpose of collecting information that can be used to analyze frequency of coral reef and/or beach use and other activities, general knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of coral reef ecosystems as well as attitudes and opinions of natural resource management and protection activities including rules and regulations (See CNMI survey). Each survey has a core set of questions that will be the same for all jurisdictions. Each jurisdictional survey instrument contains questions that are specific to the local management needs and to the population. General demographic information will also be collected from respondents. The questions that have been selected from the bank will allow NOAA to collect data for some of the socioeconomic indicators of interest to the Coral Reef Conservation Program as outlined in Table 1 of the original supporting statement.

As described in the original supporting statement, the information will be collected using the most efficient and effective means in the individual jurisdiction. For the CNMI, a combination of phone and face to face surveys will be used. The survey will be conducted in the following languages: English, Chamorro, Carolinian, and Tagalog. More information for the CNMI’s survey, sampling, and mode of survey implementation is provided below.

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

The information collection for this US Coral Reef location is to be conducted by a contracted survey firm who will utilize face to face household as well as phone surveys based on a sample purchased by the survey firm from a reputable vendor. For the jurisdictional population, we intend to select a random sample of individuals over the age of eighteen, stratified geographically as described in Table 6 below. The random sample will be obtained from the selected survey firm using standard sample selection tools. These strata have been designed to account for the differing sizes of the populations in the areas close to coral reefs. We have used the standard approach to estimating sample size for a stratified population:

[t² N p(1-p)] / [t² p(1-p) + a² (N-1)]

Where N is the size of the total number of cases, n is the sample size, a, is the expected error, t is the value taken from the t distribution corresponding to a certain confidence interval, and p is the probability of an event.

The estimates for CNMI have been revised from 360 responses and 150 hours, to 700 responses and 292 hours.

Table 6: Sampling Requirements by Geographical Jurisdictions

Jurisdiction	Total Sample	Sample Size by Strata
2. CNMI	700	623	Saipan	Municipality
		42	Tinian	Municipality
		35	Rota	Municipality

However, this year's burden estimate (Guam = 296 hrs + CNMI=720 (Total-1016 hrs) is less than the 1,321 annualized total burden estimate in the 2015 extension. Thus, there will be no overall burden increase for 2016-17.

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