Valuation of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services in India

Abstract

Coastal and marine ecosystems provide a host of services that are of vital importance to human well-being. We estimate the values of several provisioning, regulating, and recreational services using a combination of valuation methods. We find that the total value of these services in India was approximately ₹1.9 trillion (or US$0.11 trillion in purchase price parity [PPP] terms) in 2012–13, which constitutes about 2.4% of India’s net national product that year. Recreational services account for the largest share (45%), followed by regulating services (35%) and provisioning services (20%). These estimates do not include all the services provided by coastal and marine ecosystems; therefore, our estimates should be treated as a conservative underestimate of their total economic value. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such attempt at the national level in India.