Evaluating Provisioning Services in Betana Wetland Area, Belbari, Morang, Nepal

Abstract

The ecosystem services from the wetlands offer economic opportunities for beneficiaries as well as generate revenue that in turn be used for conservation of the wetlands but the research regarding this is very limited in Nepal. Thus, this research was objectively conducted to assess the value of provisioning ecosystem services in and around Betana wetland, Nepal. The primary data were collected organizing questionnaire survey with 65 beneficiary households, key informant interviews with 11 key experts, and direct observations in January 2020; whereas the secondary data were collected from the published and unpublished documents related to the wetland. Statistically, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze the collected data so, Friedmen test, Likert scale, multi-regression analysis, correlation analysis were performed. The result showed that, there are 6 major provisioning services of the Betana wetland, namely; (a) water for irrigation, (b) fish farming, (c) water for others purpose (domestic & livestock’s), (d) fodder, (e) wild food and (f ) medicinal plants. Amongst these services, the estimated highest rank was 4.8 of the water use for irrigation. It was found that a total 1121 households were using the Betana wetland to irrigate about 219 ha of land and farming the crops like maize, rice, wheat etc. The monetary value of these crops was approximately US$ 223,958.33 based on hedonic pricing. The second highest rank was 4.52 of fish farming and its monetary value was about US$ 100,000. Especially, the farmers keep Silver Carp ( Hypophthalmichthys molitrix ), Bighead Carp ( Aristichthys nobilis ) and Grass Carp ( Ctenopharyngodon idellus ) in and around the wetland. The other services used by local people were (a) wild vegetable and mushroom (about 723 households); (b) livestock farming (it’s worth approximately US $ 137,766; (c) grass and fodder (which monetary value worth about US $ 3,571.16). Statically, the correlation was evaluated between willingness to pay for the services and social variables. It revealed that the age group of the respondents showed the highest correlation between these services with R 2 (0.725) and followed by the household income having R 2 value 0.678 at 95% confidence level (P=0.022). This research, therefore, concluded that the provisional ecological services of the Betana wetland are useful source to uplift the economic condition of beneficiaries and hence this will be an important insight for the policy makers and authorities working in wetland conservation.