Economic valuation of ecosystem services of Eastern Corridor of Selous- Niassa ecosystem, Tanzania and Mozambique

Abstract

This paper explains the less known economic values of ecosystem services of Selous – Niassa ecosystem as a result of spatial and temporal changes of land use and land cover. Objectives of the study were to determine changes of ecosystem services, ecosystem functions, estimate ecosystem services of trees loss/gain and analyse ecosystem services of wood balance resulted from LULCC. The study employs benefit transfer method on local and global estimation of ESV with combination of field survey, remote sensing and GIS techniques Generally, annual changes of ESV for the period 1986 -2016 estimated as US$ 7 million and US$ 20 million using local and global ESV coefficients respectively. Additionally, for three decades there is local and global annual loss of US$ 322 million and US$ 654 million respectively of ecosystem functions mostly from closed woodlands, open woodlands, grassland and water from 1986 to 2016. Also, there is total annual local and global gain of ecosystem functions of US$ 106 million and US$ 118 million respectively from bushland and cultivated land. The gain of ecosystem functions comes from provisioning services and the degradation of ecosystem functions led by, supporting services, then regulatory services and lastly cultural services. Furthermore, for the period 1986 – 2016 an annual ecosystem services of trees gained by US$ 315 million and US$ 642 million for local and global ESV respectively. Lastly, estimated local and global ESV of wood supply in the study area for the year 2016 is at least 25 times the average demand per year per capita. The study recommends an emergence of reviewing management and conservation strategies to attain sustainability of Selous-Niassa ecosystem.