Valuation of Forest Ecosystem services as Green Economy

Economic valuation of ecosystem services has strong potential to clear the haziness of impacts of decisions undertaken for management of ecosystem services across time and space. Invariably, the response policies designed and implemented to manage ecosystems like forests, wetlands, marine and coasts entail conflict of interests amongst stakeholders in society. Conserving and regulating water, preserving soil, supporting forest management and biodiversity conservation, providing fodder and forage resources for pastoral development, maintaining good environmental conditions for agriculture development, and producing timber and non-timber forest products, and promoting adventure and nature-based tourism are some of the most prominent ecosystems services in the HKH region. Scientists put the annual ecosystem service value of the ecosystems of Himalayas at US$ 150–170 billion. Capturing benefits and costs of those management options in terms of impacts on ecosystem services brings the elements of objectivity and credibility in the entire management strategy. The Himalayan ecosystems are unique with critical role in protecting the environment and providing livelihoods for a larger part of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and even to the rest of the Asia.

Most of the times, the economic valuation of ecosystems and biodiversity is done in the context of project or for specific arrangement like payment for ecosystems and cost effectiveness of adaptation to climate change. Economic valuation can also play a greater role for evaluating scenarios analysis (costs of action vs. costs of inaction) and estimating the impacts of policy reforms in different sectors (for example, investment needed for a green economy). Typically, the need for such analysis is far greater in growing and transition economies where sectoral reforms are inevitable challenges for the managers of the economies.

Western Himalaya Mountains have high biological and agricultural diversity including food, fibre, and medicinal plants. The region is rich in medicinal and aromatic plants and different types of mushrooms, precious fibres such as Kashmere wool, and mountain-specific crops such as amaranths, apple, Malta oranges and different types of millets that are in great demand in downstream and global markets. Ophiocordyceps sinensis locally known as “yarsha gamboo” is a highly medicinal value fungus, found growing on the insect caterpillar of Hepialus armoricanus in higher hills of western Himalaya. This fungus has high medicinal value and is used in traditional remedies for various physiological disorders. Being a hormone stimulator Ophiocordyceps is an important anti-aging medicine. Frequent use of this fungus may prevent senile disorder. It is found beneficial in the case of climatic age illness, important, emission, neurasthenia, rheumatoid, arthritis, cirrhosis, flabby waist and knee. Ophiocordyceps has been in traditional use for various diseases like chronic bronchitis, insomnian hypertension, pneumonia, tuberculosis, anemia, night sweat and cough. The cost of natural specimen of national market is more than 3 lakh /kg and in International market more than 5 lakh/kg.  Different types of timbers, fuel wood, forage, and non-timber forest products are widely sourced from these mountains to support downstream economies. The vast and diverse amount of gene pool, especially wild relatives of important crops found in the HKH mountains are the important resource for future and growing population.

Forests are the major sources of timber, fuel wood, fodder, and food for the native people of the Himalayan region. Here, dependency of human population on the forest biomass for running their livelihood is tremendously high and it is a century old practice. Sustainable forest management (SFM) integrates economic, social and environmental values and involves multiple stakeholders, industries, local communities and governments, in planning and decision making. Sustainable forest management must meet societal concerns and tackle conservation and land use issues, providing for multifunctional landscapes and looking to eco-regions rather than boundaries as the unit of analysis and management (reference).

Sustainable forest management represents a new look at forests and forest management to meet two major commitments:

1. Protect and restore the forest ecosystem-improve biological diversity, enhance water supplies, make possible carbon sequestration, meet recreation needs and provide for the forest dependent communities through improved non-wood forest produce;

2. Encourage profitable enterprises, attracting the investor who sees sustainability as a viable economic venture.

Forestry needs to be protected through REDD+ regime and thereby ensure their contribution to a green economy. Credible forest documentation can unite stakeholders in a quest for a comprehensive green economy. It can address fair trade, the need to balance the social, cultural, economic and environmental governance of development, and environmental concerns for the natural resources and carbon-rich forests of the western Himalaya. Appropriately evolved forest certification can be used as a tool in REDD+-related strategies and CDM to address climate change and to benefit local forest stewards. Dynamically adapted forest certification systems can backstop efforts to erode persistent poverty, which are both a cause and a consequence of deforestation and forest degradation. The western Himalayan biomass resource is larger than currently used and several commonwealth industries would benefit from closer outlet for wood residue disposal.

The Van Panchayat (VP: Village Forest Councils) is the oldest community forestry institution in the Indian State of Uttarakhand. Their conservation efforts contribute in providing a number of ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, which has acquired a significant value in the context of climate change. There is a potential for rewarding VPs through carbon payment mechanisms in Uttarakhand. In India there is a distinct possibility to do so under the Green India Mission of the National Action Plan on Climate Change that can augment the green economy.

As pointed earlier the Indian Himalayan forests sequester nearly 65 million t C per year, equal to 15 - 20% CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels combustion from India around the year 2000. Obviously, the Himalayan region contributes substantially to a balanced carbon budget as a whole at the country level.