Economic valuation of ecosystem services of Girnar forest Gujarat

Abstract

The Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary is a single compact patch of 17,873 hectare of south tropical dry deciduous dry teak forest located at the east periphery of Junagadh city and surrounded by 41 villages within a buffer of 5 km. The Girnar forest, also called Mt. Girnar locally for its undulating hilly terrain with the highest elevation of 1,117 meters, is about 35 km from the Gir National Park and Sanctuary). It has a huge influence on the local human wellbeing, and is regarded as water reservoir for people of Junagadh. About 1.6 million people annually visit Girnar for purpose of recreation, ecotourism, pilgrimage and spiritual satisfaction. Failure to account the contribution of numerous forest ecosystem goods and services for human wellbeing has often led to forest diversion, exploitation and overuse of its resources. Such short-term gains have often led to long term loss of the biodiversity and depletion of ecosystem resources that are crucial for local people s sustenance, livelihood, health, and overall wellbeing. Girnar too had seen a severe degradation in the past for same reasons. However, as a result of strong management decisions, policy interventions and people s participation since the 1990s, it was successfully restored; which is reflected from its number of watersheds, habitat recovery of a number of biodiversity species, natural recolonization of Asiatic lion and number of other ecosystem functions. Bringing forth the economic benefits provided by Girnar forests is important in order to ensure that it is properly conserved, its economic values to the society are considered in policy and decision making, and also that the tradeoffs involving its environmental resources are suitably evaluated and addressed. This research has tried to recognize and demonstrate the economic value of a bundle of ecosystem goods and services provided by (a restored) Girnar forest. In a well-established analytical research framework, I have brought out a conservative estimate of the annual economic flow value of 11 ecosystem