Report on Water Yield in Eastern Forest Complex (EFCOM) SONGTAM SUKSAWANG THAMMANOON TEMCHAI National Parks Office ค ำนิยม คุณชวัลญา จตุพิธพรจันทร์ เป็นนักศึกษาจากประเทศอังกฤษ ซึ่งมีความสนใจในด้าน สิ่งแวดล้อม จึงขอมาฝึกงานที่ส านักอุทยานแห่งชาติ ระหว่างนี้ ได้ช่วยแปลรายงานวิจัยฉบับนี้ เพื่อเผยแพร่ ส านักอุทยานแห่งชาติขอขอบคุณ คุณชวัลญา จตุพิธพรจันทร์ มา ณ ที่นี้ด้วย ส านักอุทยานแห่งชาติ ธันวาคม ๒๕๖๐ Report on Water Yield in Eastern Forest Complex (EFCOM) Foreword There is an immense necessity in sustenance of ecosystem services and natural capital for the wellbeing of all living beings and maintaining economic livelihood for national, ultimately global, community as a whole. The problem lies with the intangible nature of the ecosystem services that leads to difficulties and challenges in valuing the real economic value of the natural capital. This applies even to the public facilities, such as running water or water used in industries. Since most misunderstood that the main sources are dams and irrigation systems, the assessments and compensations only end here. In the present, however, it is widely accepted that the true source of these services are natural forests, which without these quality sources the irrigation systems would fail to operate to the efficient and satisfactory standard. Deforestation has adverse effects on natural water cycle and its balance. Trees absorb groundwater, which in turn is released into the atmosphere. Once parts of the forests are destroyed or removed, this vital function follows resulting in drier atmosphere and climate. In addition to effects on atmosphere humidity, deforestation leads to decrease in both hygroscopic water and groundwater reserves. (Wikipedia, 2015) Many researches are in support of higher forest density would lead to greater groundwater content. This research aimed to clarify and reveal the true value of ecosystem services of conserved areas in Eastern Forest Complex as high quality water source and ecological balance keeper to the community, society, and different industries in Eastern Thailand. This research hopes to bring community awareness and economic action into sustainable management of ecosystems. Objective To study water yield in eastern ecosystems for the use of aiding Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in Eastern Thailand. Literature Review Ecosystem Ecosystem refers to the interaction and dynamism, or the ever-changing relationship between plants, animals and microorganisms, and their physical nonliving environment that has an interactive functional unit within including, desert, coral reef, wetland, rainforest, swamp forest, grassland, as well as man-made ecosystems such as farms and agricultural areas. Biodiversity Biodiversity refers to the various living organisms residing in the ecosystem, which are categorized according to different species, genetics, and ecosystems all around the globe. Different species are home to different parts of the world and its ecosystems. Ecosystem Services Pramote Insawang et al (n.d.) states ecosystem services refer to the beneficial services humans receive from ecosystems and biodiversity in improving quality of life for individuals and society as a whole. For instance, water and timber can aid in controlling climate, protection against natural disasters, control soil erosion, recreational use, and carbon absorption. An ecosystem could provide multiple services such as forests could serve as food and energy source (provisioning services), prevent landslides, act as carbon sink, relief global warming and climate change (regulating services), recreational use for local and regional communities (cultural services), and act as habitat for living organisms, including plants and animals, that may be of medical use for human beings (supporting services). It could be concluded that ecosystem services provide uncountable beneficial services: provision, regulate, cultural support, and influences vital natural capital and environment. Jatuporn Tianma (2014) states that ecosystem services (ES) refer to benefits that nature provide for human beings. Most used ecosystem services would be food, clean water and natural capital used for manufacturing products and services. However, ecosystem services are not only limited to these, some less well known or understood, such as forest as carbon sink and relieving climate change, and water filtering function of wetlands. Therefore, by valuing ecosystems for its services, environment could be considered as “assets” vital to development and, thus, environmental sustenance is considered as “investment” in need. It is crucial to not deem nature conservation as “sunk costs” in which no benefits are returned. Ecosystem services also refer to benefits human beings receive from ecosystems, both from environment and biodiversity, in improving livelihoods and wellbeing for individuals and societies. For example, regulating climate, natural disasters protection, controlling soil erosion, recreational use and carbon sink. Pramote et al (n.d.) states that the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), whom assessed the current state of world’s ecosystems and their services, has divided ecosystem services into 4 categories as follow: Provisioning services are the provision of resources and capital for productive usage, such as food, timber, minerals, plants, and animals. Regulating services are the controlling of natural events and natural processes of the ecosystems, such as regulating climate, coastal erosion, flood prevention and soil erosion prevention. Cultural services are the nonmaterial benefits derived towards sustaining social and cultural values, such as traditions, recreational use, spiritual enrichment, and aesthetics experiences. P5 Supporting services are the natural processes that sustain other services such as acting as food source for primary production, creating nutrient cycle, and habitats for offspring. The valuation of ecosystems should encompass both economic values, including land sale value, water charges, raw materials, and carbon credit trade and transactions, and non-market values, such as societal value. Measuring both market and non-market values gives greater accuracy of true worth of the ecosystem. For instance, in case of destruction of ecosystems due to deforestation or improvement due to water source purification. It is possible to value ecosystem services by quality and/or quantity and monetization. Monetization gives better comparable and understandable results, which means better conveyance of the true value of ecosystem services. However, relying solely on monetization values may lead to the disregard of benefits and costs of ecosystems since some of the benefits and costs may be intangible and unquantifiable. Therefore, values in some cases the quality may need to be tested and evaluated. Valuation of ecosystem services should ranked according the importance of each service then quantification and monetization to present value of each service and the system as a whole. In some cases, it is sufficient to use only quality and quantity estimates for decision-making. Qualitative evaluation explains the values and determines the level of each value bracket into, for instance, high, medium and low level. This allows comparability of all ecosystems within the assigned geographical area. For example a “medium level” may be a situation where economic repercussions impacted a lake’s supply of fishery resources, which in turn affected the livelihood of the local community. P6 Quantitative evaluation uses quantitative data in evaluating research or value, such as 40 local fishermen from 4 neighborhoods experienced decrease of 25% in harvest from average catch of 2 tons per year. Monetary evaluation is the monetization, or changing the values into monetary terms, of the effect and use of ecosystems for comparability and aggregation of values. For example, aggregate effects on local fisheries may amount to loss of 5 million baht per year in profits with 200,000 baht loss to two neighborhoods and 50,000 to the other two. Photo 1: Types of ecosystems Source: Gromko (2013) Natural capital Natural capital refers to world’s the natural recourses and natural ecosystem services, which aids and sustains human life. (Natural Capital Declaration, 2012, reference: Dempsey, n.d.) Ecosystem services from natural capital are vital to human economic activities, including food, water, and energy, and widely agreed on the crucial role in success of economic and sustainable developments. (Dempsey, n.d.) P7 Kasetporpeang (2014) defines non-monetary capital as valuable goods or services that could not be converted into monetary terms. Non-monetary capital refers to those goods that are important in enriching human lives, further knowledge, wisdom and experience, societal capital, cultural values, and strengthen local community and traditions. Community Development Department divides “capital” into 2 categories, monetary and non-monetary capital. There are 4 types of non-monetary capital as follows: 1. Human Capital refers to the qualities of each individual within the community, all ages and genders, endowed with health, longevity, knowledge and intellect, skills, status, and household wealth. 2. Social Capital refers to the collective social resources exploited by members of the society in order to sustain their livelihood, including trust, acceptance, faith, and cultural inheritance. 3. Physical Capital refers to man-made goods that enhance human livelihood or one of the main factors of production,