Abstract
Tea plantations are rapidly expanding in China and other countries in the tropical and subtropical zones, driven by relatively high private economic benefit. However, the impact of tea plantations on the regional environment, including ecosystem services and disservices are unclear. In this study, we developed an assessment framework for determining the private economic benefits and environmental externalities (the algebraic sum of the regulating services and disservices) of tea plantations in China. Our results showed that tea plantations provided private economic benefits of 5,652yuanha(-1)year(-1) (7.6yuan = 1 USD in 2007) for tea farmers, plus positive environmental externalities of 6,054yuanha(-1)year(-1) for the society. The environmental externalities were calculated as the sum of the value of four regulating services, including carbon sequestration (392yuanha(-1)year(-1)); soil retention (72yuanha(-1)year(-1)); soil fertility protection (3,189yuanha(-1)year(-1)) and water conservation (2,685yuanha(-1)year(-1)), and three disservices, including CO2 emission (-39yuanha(-1)year(-1)), N2O emission (-137yuanha(-1)year(-1)) and nonpoint source pollution (-108yuanha(-1)year(-1)). Before the private optimal level, the positive environmental externalities can be maintained by private economic benefits; if a social optimal level is required, subsidies from government are necessary.
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