Economic Valuation of Mangrove Ecosystem Services in Sembilang National Park of South Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

An ecosystem services valuation could provide significant improvements for the policy maker to monitor the mangrove ecosystem changes in coastal ecosystems. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the value of ecosystem service in Sembilang National Park (NSP), Banyuasin District, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Data collection used questionnaires and in-depth interviews with the target respondents being fishermen, farmers, and stakeholders who live in the mangrove ecosystem area. The total economic value (TEV) was used as an approach for calculating the various values of the mangrove services. Several methods have been developed to estimate the ecosystem services value. In this study, the market price method, benefits transfer method, replacement method, and travel cost method were applied to estimate the benefit value for provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. The result showed that the TEV of mangrove ecosystem services with an area of 88,556 ha was IDR 6,961,126,186,194 year-1 (US$ 467,974,555.06 year-1) or IDR 78,607,444 ha-1year-1 (US$ 5,284.5 ha-1year-1). The annual benefit values for provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services were IDR 267,301,712,200, IDR 6,401,520,094,447, IDR 292,120,962,048, and IDR 183,417,500, respectively. The benefit value of regulating services (coastline protection and carbon sequestration) dominated the TEV of mangrove ecosystems in the SNP. To avoid the lost value of these mangrove services, conservation and restoration should receive a high priority in mangrove management and planning in the future. These research results could be used as baseline data for local governments in managing mangrove ecosystems through the establishment of a mangrove working group in South Sumatra Province. Therefore, the novelty of this research resided in the first economic valuation in the SNP using the TEV approach, as illustrated.