Assessment of Ecosystem Services in Panchase Protected Forest, Nepal

Abstract

Ecosystem has both structural and functional components and through continuous interaction of these components, ecosystem delivers crucial materials and services to the functioning of ecosystem itself and to the human society as a whole. The present research has been carried out with the aim of assessing ecosystem services of Panchase Protected Forest by identifying ecosystem services, estimating their economic values, assessing distribution of benefits and framing financing mechanisms for sustainable management of forest ecosystems. Transect Walk Observations, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews and Expert Consultations were used to identify ecosystem services, examine distribution of benefits and explore financing mechanisms. The economic value of ecosystem services was estimated using Total Economic Valuation framework considering both use values and non-use values. Panchase Protected Forest has been providing 17 types of ecosystem services including six provisioning, six regulating, two habitat and three cultural and amenity services. The provisioning services include food, medicines, raw materials, energy sources, ornamental resources and water. The regulating services include water flow regulation, erosion prevention, water purification, soil fertility maintenance, air quality regulation and climate regulation. The habitat services include life cycle maintenance and genetic resources maintenance, and the cultural and amenity services include recreation and tourism, cultural and religious, and cognitive resources. The total annual economic value of the ecosystem services provided by the forest is NPR 204.63 million (USD 2,046,312). However, economic contribution of forest ecosystem services has not been well reflected in National Accounting System. The beneficiaries of the ecosystem services of the protected forest range from local to sub-national, national and global levels. The present research has suggested ‘payment for ecosystem services’ and ‘forest ecosystem trust fund’ as appropriate financing mechanism for conservation and sustainable management of the Panchase Protected Forest. Moreover, this study has suggested to revise current National Accounting System recognizing values of ecosystem services in economic decisions.

Keywords: economic valuation, ecosystem financing, ecosystem services, protected forest, willingness to pay