Assessment of Ecosystem Services in Panchase Protected Forest, Nepal
Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Department of Environmental Science
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
Description
Keywords
Economic valuation, Ecosystem financing, Ecosystem services, protected forest