Valuation of ecosystem services of rice–fish coculture systems in Ruyuan County, China

Abstract

Rice–fish coculture ecosystems have been designated a “globally important agricultural heritage system.” However, existing studies mainly focus on the provisioning services from these systems while ignoring the other valuable roles they play, such as in regulating and supporting services. To remedy this gap, this study constructs a new framework for classifying ecosystem services (ES) based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and our analysis of rice–fish coculture ecosystem functions. Using our revised model, we found the ES value of rice–fish coculture ecosystems in the study area was 255,529 RMB/hm2/year and was 37.9% higher than that in rice monoculture, while the ES value increased by at least 6.74 times than direct economic value in rice monoculture. In addition, the ES value of rice–fish coculture increased by 2.31 times, as compared direct economic value with rice–fish coculture. These findings demonstrate the vitality of traditional ecological agriculture, which is not only conducive to enhancing the awareness of managers and the public regarding the protection of agricultural cultural heritage, but also provides data that will allow the government to formulate better compensation standards for rice–fish ecosystems.