Abstract
The Deepor Beel is one of the large and important riverine wetlands in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, India. The only Ramsar site of Assam, the Beel is one of the richest biodiversity grounds in the wetland eco-system of the state. The Deepor Beel is the hub of a wide range of organisms. It provides various goods and services directly or indirectly to the villages near to the beel for their livelihood. Despite its contribution to society and ecology as a whole, these goods and services of the Beel are undervalued in the policy provisions. The prime reason for this undervaluation is that most of the goods and services of the Beel are non-marketable and those goods which have direct use-values are never valued in an economic term. To fill the gap partially, this study tries to estimate the direct use values of the Deepor Beel. Among the goods the Deepor Beel provides, fishing can be considered one of the economically significant goods. Fishing provides livelihood directly to 825 households living near the Beel. Therefore, this research tries to estimate the direct use value of fishing in the Deepor Beel. A market price approach is applied to estimate the value of this wetland resource. Net Present Value (NPV) of fishing is also estimated. The total estimated value of fishing is INR 11,64,69,375 per annum. The estimated value of fishing per hectare is INR 29,015.78 per annum. The estimated Net Present Value (NPV) of fishing is INR 97,05,78,125. This valuation is important to draw the attention of the policymakers for resource investment in conserving the Beel for continued benefits.
Highlights
Wetlands, on the one hand, are the most productive ecosystem providing various significant services to human and wildlife and on the other, these are the ecologically sensitive systems (Gokce, 2018)
Net Present Value (NPV) is used to convert the stream of benefits from the future flows of ecosystem services to figure out the value of this natural resource capital
Net Present Value (NPV) is an economic term representing the economic value of a natural resource item over time, discounted to presentday terms (Azar and Sterner, 1996)
Summary
On the one hand, are the most productive ecosystem providing various significant services to human and wildlife and on the other, these are the ecologically sensitive systems (Gokce, 2018). A single wetland system can provide multiple ecosystem services such as provisioning, regulating, cultural and suppoting service (Sofia & Nurlianti, 2019). The wetlands in India are facing the acute problem of existence. Even though many conservation and protection acts are enacted, the rate of loss of wetland is increasing at a fast pace. Studies depict that India has lost more than 38 per cent of its wetlands in the last decade. The rate has been as high as 88 per cent (Vijayan et al, 2004). The principal causes of degradation are habitat destruction by land-filling, hydrological alterations, upstream dams and pollution by industrial and domestic sources
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