Appraisal of Forest Ecosystems Goods and Services: Challenges and Opportunities for Conservation

Journal of Biodiversity ISSN: 0976-6901 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rbio20 Appraisal of Forest Ecosystems Goods and Services: Challenges and Opportunities for Conservation T. V. Ramachandra, Divya Soman, Ashwath D. Naik & M. D. Subash Chandran To cite this article: T. V. Ramachandra, Divya Soman, Ashwath D. Naik & M. D. Subash Chandran (2017) Appraisal of Forest Ecosystems Goods and Services: Challenges and Opportunities for Conservation, Journal of Biodiversity, 8:1, 12-33 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09766901.2017.1346160 Published online: 21 Aug 2017. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rbio20 Download by: [Indian Institute of Science], [T. V. Ramachandra] Date: 26 September 2017, At: 07:01 J Biodiversity, 8(1): 12-33 (2017) DOI: 10.1080/09766901.2017.1346160 Appraisal of Forest Ecosystems Goods and Services: Challenges and Opportunities for Conservation T. V. Ramachandra1,2,3, Divya Soman, Ashwath D. Naik1 and M. D. Subash Chandran1 1Energy & Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) 2Centre for Sustainable Technologies (ASTRA) 3Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, Karnataka, India Telephone: 91-80-23600985, 22932506, 22933099, Fax: 91-80-23601428, 23600085, 23600683[CES-TVR], E-mail: <[email protected]>,<[email protected]> KEYWORDS Economic Valuation. Provisioning Services. Regulating Services. Tropical Forests ABSTRACT Valuation of ecosystem goods and services is essential to formulate sustainable development policies oriented towards the protection or restoration of ecosystems. The present study estimates the value of forest ecosystem of Uttara Kannada district by market price method. The total value of provisioning goods and services from the forests of Uttara Kannada district was estimated at Rs. 15,171 crores per year, which amounts to about Rs. 2 lakh per hectare per year. The study highlights the undervaluation of forest goods and services that is evident when the estimated total economic value of forest and the value of forest resources calculated in national income accounting framework are compared. The quantification of all benefits associated with the forest ecosystem goods and services would help in arriving at an appropriate policy and managerial decisions to ensure conservation while opting sustainable development path. INTRODUCTION services (MEA 2003; Daily and Matson 2008; Gunderson et al. 2016). The tropical forests are An ecosystem is a complex of interconnect- the rich source of biodiversity and are probably ed living organisms inhabiting a particular area thought of containing more than half of world’s or unit space, together with their environment biodiversity. Biodiversity is important to human and all their interrelationships and relationships kind in fulfilling its needs by way of providing with the environment having well-maintained food (80,000 species), medicine (20,000 species), ecological processes and interactions (Ram- drug formulations (8,000 species) and raw mate- achandra et al. 2007, 2015). Ecosystem functions rials (90% from forests) for industries (Ram- include the exchange of energy between the achandra et al. 2016a, b; Ramachandra and Na- plants and animals that are needed for the suste- garathna 2001: Ramachandra and Ganapathy nance of life. These functions include nutrient 2007). Among the terrestrial biomes, forests oc- cycling, oxygen regulation, water supply etc. The cupy about 31 percent (4,033 million hectare) of flow of goods or services which occur naturally the world’s total land area and of which 93 per- by ecological interactions between biotic and cent of the world’s forest cover is natural forest abiotic components in an ecosystem is often re- and 7 percent is planted (FAO 2010; TEEB 2010; ferred as ecosystem goods and services. These Villegas-Palacio et al. 2016). Forest ecosystems goods and services not only provide tangible account for over two-thirds of net primary pro- Downloaded by [Indian Institute of Science], [T. V. Ramachandra] at 07:01 26 September 2017 and intangible benefits to human community, but duction on land – the conversion of solar ener- also are critical to the functioning of ecosystem. gy into biomass through photosynthesis, mak- Thus, ecosystem goods and services are the ing them a key component of the global carbon process through which natural ecosystems and cycle and climate (MEA 2003). The forests of the species that make up sustain and fulfill the the world harbor very large and complex biolog- human needs (Newcome et al. 2005). Ecosystems ical species diversity, which is an indicator for are thus natural capital assets supporting and biological diversity and the species richness supplying services highly valuable to human increases as we move from the poles to the equa- livelihoods and providing various goods and torial region. Forest ecosystem services can pro- GOODS AND SERVICES OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS 13 vide both direct and indirect economic benefits. Valuation reveal the relative importance of dif- India’s forest has been classified into four major ferent ecosystem services, especially those not groups, namely, tropical, sub-tropical, temper- traded in conventional markets (TEEB 2010).The ate, and alpine (Champion and Seth 1968). Trop- ecosystem goods and services are grouped into ical forest in particular contributes more than four categories as provisioning, regulating, sup- the other terrestrial biomes to climate relevant porting and information services (MEA 2003; de cycles and biodiversity related processes. These Groot et al. 2002), based on the Total Economic forests constitute the earth’s major genetic res- Value (TEV) framework with significant empha- ervoir and global water cycles (Anderson and sis on intrinsic aspects of ecosystem value, par- Bojo 1992; Gunderson et al. 2016). ticularly in relation to socio-cultural values (MEA The ecosystem provides various fundamen- 2003). TEEB (2010) excludes the supporting ser- tal benefits for our survival such as food; soil vices (such as nutrient cycling and food-chain production, erosion and control; climate regula- dynamic) and incorporates habitat service as a tion; water purification; bioenergy, etc. These separate category. benefits and services are very crucial for the survival of humans and other organisms on the earth (MEA 2003; de Groot et al. 2002; Villegas- Palacio et al. 2016). It includes provisioning services such as food and water, regulating services such as flood and disease control, cultural services such as spiritual, recreational and cultural benefits, and supporting services such as nutrient cycling that maintains the conditions for life on earth. Sustainable ecosystem service delivery depends on the health, integrity and resilience of the ecosystem. Policy-makers, in- terest groups and the public require reliable information on the environmental, social and economic value of regulating services to make in- formed decisions on optimum use and on the Fig. 1. Ecosystems health and economic values conservation of ecosystems (Kumar et al. 2010). Source: Author The prime reason for ecosystem mismanagement is the failure to realise the value of ecosystem. Integrated framework for assessing the eco- Valuation of ecosystem is essential to respite system goods and services (TEEB 2010; de Groot human activities apart from accounting their ser- et al. 2002; Villegas-Palacio et al. 2016) involves vices in the regional planning (Ramachandra et the translation of complex structures and pro- al. 2011). The range of benefits derived from ec- cesses into a limited number of ecosystem func- osystem can be direct or indirect, tangible or tions namely production, regulation, habitat and intangible, can be provided locally or at global information. These goods and services are val- scale – all of which makes measurement particu- ued by humans and grouped as ecological, so- larly hard (TEEB 2010). Economic valuation of cio-cultural and economic values. All values are natural resources aids the social planners to estimated using the common metric, which helps design and better manage the ecosystems and in aggregating values of different goods and Downloaded by [Indian Institute of Science], [T. V. Ramachandra] at 07:01 26 September 2017 related human wellbeing. Figure 1 shows the in- services (DEFRA 2007). When the market does terrelationship of ecosystem, ecosystem func- not capture the value of environmental goods tions, economic values and its impact on eco- or services, techniques associated with ‘shad- system through incentive/disincentive. ow pricing’ or ‘proxy price’ are used to indirectly Valuation of ecosystems enhances the abili- estimate its value. Estimation of the economic ty of decision-makers to evaluate trade-offs be- values for 17 different ecosystem services (Cos- tween alternative ecosystem management re- tanza et al.1997; Villegas-Palacio et al. 2016) high- gimes and courses of social action that alter the light that the annual value of the ecosystem ser- use of ecosystems and the multiple services they vices of the terrestrial and aquatic biomes of the provide (MEA 2003; Villegas-Palacio et al. 2016). world to be 1.8 times higher than the global gross 14 T. V. RAMACHANDRA, DIVYA SOMAN, ASHWATH D. NAIK ET

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