Ecological policy benefit valuation based on public feedback: Forest ecosystem services in Wuyishan nature reserve, China

Yaxuan Chang; Taohong Zou; Kunihiko Yoshino; Shezhou Luo; Shungui Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.076

Ecological policy benefit valuation based on public feedback: Forest ecosystem services in Wuyishan nature reserve, China

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jul 10:673:622-630. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.076. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

Authors

Yaxuan Chang¹, Taohong Zou², Kunihiko Yoshino³, Shezhou Luo⁴, Shungui Zhou⁴

Affiliations

¹ Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Environmental Health and Regulation, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China; Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, yayoi1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
² College of Travel and Geographical Science, Jilin Normal University, Siping, Jilin Province 136000, China.
³ Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, yayoi1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan. Electronic address: asky@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
⁴ Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Environmental Health and Regulation, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China.

PMID: 30999103
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.076

Abstract

The spontaneous expansion of tea cultivation has led to the degradation of forest ecosystem services in the Wuyishan national nature reserve (WNNR). In 2008, the local government put forward the policy of "returning tea to forests" (RTTF) to protect the forest ecosystem. However, in order to measure its effects over the past ten years, it is necessary to accurately quantify the economic benefits of this ecological policy. This study tracked the land use changes in WNNR during the last 17 years and estimated the ecosystem service value caused by the RTTF policy. We used virtual market methods to convert different types of public feedback into a unified monetary value, and estimated the economic benefits of RTTF by combining the land use changes. Results showed that the added value of forest ecosystem services not only compensated for the loss of tea profits, but also brought about remarkable economic benefits (approximately US$140 million). Through the combination of ecological changes and economic benefits, we proposed a future direction of the RTTF policy adjustment. More broadly, we provided a method to quantify economic effects (or economic losses) from the perspective of public feedback on the basis of ecological changes. This attempt has contributed to the solving of econometric problems related to ecological policy by combining bioinformatics with ecological economics.

Keywords: Benefit trade-offs; Contingent valuation method; Feedback valuation; Forest ecosystem services; Land-use changes.