Wetland Economic Valuation Approaches and Prospects in China

Ecosystem services valuation seeks to increase the social relevance of ecosystem characteristics, the underlying biological mechanisms that support services, by making the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being explicit. Economic valuation can help management by clarifying the full range of benefits and costs of proposed management actions. In the past two decades, economic valuation of wetland ecosystem services has become one of the most significant scientific priorities for wetland protection. In this paper, we provide an overview of ecosystem services, and summarize the main interdisciplinary approaches to measure and value wetland ecosystem services. We identified four main methodological gaps preventing progress on wetland valuation of ecosystem services in China, which are: 1) confusion on terminology like intermediate and final ecosystem services, 2) lack of ecological production functions to link ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services, 3) static valuation making it difficult to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and 4) lack of clear guidance on relating ecological compensation programs to conservation targets. Overcoming these gaps is important to inform wetland compensation mechanisms and conservation policies. We propose future research on wetland ecosystem services in China should be focused on: 1) defining final ecosystem services based on beneficiary preferences and underlying biophysical mechanisms, 2) establishing wetland monitoring programs at specific sites to collect data on final ecosystem service indicators and ecosystem characteristic metrics to create ecological production functions for economic valuation and rescaling techniques, and 3) incorporating wetland ecosystem service values into decision-making processes to inform wetland management.

Assessment of ecosystem services of rice farms in eastern India

Background:Rice is a major cereal crop and staple food of eastern India,and most farmers depend solely on rice for their livelihood.Rice farming provides both tangible and non-tangible benefits to ecosystems which need to be maintained and enhanced.These benefits are provided through ecosystem services(ES)that include both marketable and non-marketable.Methods:In this study,the rice farms in eastern India were valued by quantifying the economic value of the services under conventional method of rice cultivation and the gap of ecosystem services value and farm income per unit area were assessed.A stratified random sampling technique was used in this study for selection of agro-climatic zones,districts,blocks,gram panchayat,and study units(households).Soil sampling was also performed for assessing the regulating services(biocontrol of pests,carbon flow,soil erosion,nitrogen fixation),provisioning services(food and by-products),and supporting services(soil fertility,hydrological flow,nutrient cycling,and soil formation).Results:The results indicated that the total economic value of ecosystem services ranged from US$1238 to 1688 ha−1 year−1.The marketed(primary production)and non-marketed ecosystem services values ranged from 66–89 to 11–34%of the total,respectively.Valuation of some of the ecosystem services such as cultural services,biodiversity,and gas regulation,which may play a significant role in total ecosystem services,has not been made due to non-availability of data and appropriate methodology for rice ecosystem.Different values of parameters can explain the variability in ecosystem services among the agro-climatic zones in eastern India.Clustering of locations based on variability of ecosystem services helps in identifying intervention points for sustaining and improving ecosystem services,while permitting sustainable agro-ecological intensification.The highest total economic gap between ES value and farm income was found in the north central plateau zone(US$1063 ha−1 year−1)and the lowest in the north western plateau zone(US$670 ha−1 year−1).Conclusion:We suggest various measures to reduce the economic gap,including payments for ecosystem services for rice farming for sustainability of the ecosystem and agricultural development,while ensuring reliable farm income.