SANEI: Completed Studies: Abstract

Economics of Coastal Wetlands: A study of India and Bangladesh

The major objective of this study is to attempt valuation of the coastal wetlands in selected areas of India and Bangladesh including the Sundarbans, the area shared by these two countries. It is well known that the coastal wetlands and mangroves provide a number of goods and services to the economy, all of which do not have a properly functioning market. These goods and services include timber, fuel wood, recreation, coastal-protection barriers, grounds for fish-breeding, and so on. The values of these services do not usually get reflected in the decision on the alternative uses and management strategies of coastal wetlands. This is one major reason for the continuing destruction of such wetlands and associated ecosystems all over the world.

There are different types of values for an ecosystem such as coastal wetlands. These include use values, non-use values and option values. Use values arise due to the direct and indirect use of this resource either today or in future. Option values correspond to the potential uses in future when more information is available, even when one entity is not currently used and not known to be usable in future. People may be ready to pay to conserve some resource, even if they will not use it ever and it is reflected in the non-use values such as existence or bequest values. The proposed study will be focusing on use values arising from the four major functions of the coastal wetlands: input to fish production, recreation and protection of coastal land and carbon sequestration. The valuation of the coastal wetlands to be attempted in this study will be based on surrogate market prices, and by using indirect methods such as the estimate of avoidance cost, cost of substitutes and so on.

There will be three regional case studies, one in Kerala, and the other two in Sundarbans, with one each from the Indian and Bangladesh part of Sundarbans. The mangroves of Cochin area to be studied in Kerala, are fragmented into small areas and are currently under the threat of conversion for agricultural or residential purposes. Thus, the focus of analysis there is to see the value of conserving mangroves vis-à-vis its most-beneficial alternative use. Conservation benefits include potential contribution to fish production, land protection and carbon sequestration. In the case of Sundarbans, the recreation benefits too will play an important role. Moreover, the potential conversion to use for aquaculture will also be considered in the case of Sundarbans.



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