Author
Bidyarani Konthoujam
Bio: Bidyarani Konthoujam is an academic researcher from Wildlife Institute of India. The author has contributed to research in topics: Recreation & Cost–benefit analysis. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 49 citations.
Papers
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the economic value of selected ecosystem services of Corbett Tiger Reserve, India, and derived direct and indirect and opportunity costs through socioeconomic surveys, and showed that, though the benefits outweigh costs, they need to be accrued to local communities so as to balance the distribution of benefits and costs.
61 citations
Cited by
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TL;DR: Some simple economic analyses are provided to discuss key concepts involved in formalizing ecosystem service research, including the distinction between services and benefits, understanding the importance of marginal ecosystem changes, and formalizing the idea of a safe minimum standard for ecosystem service provision.
Abstract: It has become essential in policy and decision-making circles to think about the economic benefits (in addition to moral and scientific motivations) humans derive from well-functioning ecosystems. The concept of ecosystem services has been developed to address this link between ecosystems and human welfare. Since policy decisions are often evaluated through cost–benefit assessments, an economic analysis can help make ecosystem service research operational. In this paper we provide some simple economic analyses to discuss key concepts involved in formalizing ecosystem service research. These include the distinction between services and benefits, understanding the importance of marginal ecosystem changes, formalizing the idea of a safe minimum standard for ecosystem service provision, and discussing how to capture the public benefits of ecosystem services. We discuss how the integration of economic concepts and ecosystem services can provide policy and decision makers with a fuller spectrum of information for making conservation–conversion trade-offs. We include the results from a survey of the literature and a questionnaire of researchers regarding how ecosystem service research can be integrated into the policy process. We feel this discussion of economic concepts will be a practical aid for ecosystem service research to become more immediately policy relevant.
527 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a description of the vision and present practices of ecotourism and provide a review of published peer-reviewed journal articles during 2000-2013.
239 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the studies that have tried to estimate the value of forest ecosystem services and discuss the shortcomings of existing studies, and suggest that future research should focus on the neglected ecosystem services, "disservices", assessing the role of dynamic factors and environmental catastrophes on the provision of ecosystem services.
157 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors assessed the economic value of the selective ecosystem services of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, using a combination of market-based and value transfer methods, and found that economic benefit generated from the reserve was worth USD 16 million per year, equivalent to USD 982 per household.
Abstract: We assessed the economic values of the selective ecosystem services of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, using a combination of market-based and value transfer methods. The results showed that economic benefit generated from the reserve was worth USD 16 million per year, equivalent to USD 982 per household. The economic benefit generated from provisioning services accounted for about 85%. Although non-use values and some components of regulatory services were not considered in the study, our findings clearly highlight the vital importance of the economic benefit generated from the reserve for wellbeing of the local people. This has significant policy implications for balancing development and conservation efforts. Given the high levels of poverty in the buffer zone communities and the limited alternative livelihood options, pressure on the reserve is increasing and the management investment is insufficient, which has accelerated the degradation of vital services thereby imposing further constraints on conservation goals. We recommend that the ecosystem services provided by the reserve should be recognized as an integral part of a strategy and ensure sound policy and institutional mechanisms exist to empower and provide local communities to act on the options for minimizing trade-offs and promoting synergies using a holistic approach.
94 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed land cover change and forest fragmentation between 1990 and 2009, and the predicted change for 2030, and suggested that expansions of cropland coupled with high dependency on forests are the major drivers of observed forest change.
88 citations