Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Appendices
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Environmental Valuation: A Review of Methods
- Chapter 3 Valuing the Environment as a Production Input
- Chapter 4 Should Shrimp Farmers Pay Paddy Farmers?: The Challenges of Examining Salinization Externalities in South India
- Chapter 5 Evaluating Gains from De-Eutrophication of the Dutch Canal in Sri Lanka
- Chapter 6 Pesticide Productivity and Vegetable Farming in Nepal
- Chapter 7 Forests, Hydrological Services, and Agricultural Income: A Case Study from the Western Ghats of India
- Chapter 8 Can Mangroves Minimize Property Loss during Big Storms?: An Analysis of House Damages due to the Super Cyclone in Orissa
- Chapter 9 Valuation of Recreational Amenities from Environmental Resources: The Case of Two National Parks in Northern Pakistan
- Chapter 10 Valuing the Land of Tigers: What Indian Visitors Reveal
- Chapter 11 Estimating Welfare Losses from Urban Air Pollution using Panel Data from Household Health Diaries
- Chapter 12 Children in the Slums of Dhaka: Diarrhoea Prevalence and its Implications
- Chapter 13 Red Wells, Green Wells and the Costs of Arsenic Contamination in Bangladesh
- Chapter 14 Air Quality and Cement Production: Examining the Implications of Point Source Pollution in Sri Lanka
- Chapter 15 Revisiting the Need for Improved Stoves: Estimating Health, Time and Carbon Benefits
- Chapter 16 Benefits from Reduced Air Pollution in Delhi and Kolkata: A Hedonic Property Price Approach
- Chapter 17 The Value of Statistical Life
- Chapter 18 An Assessment of Demand for Improved Household Water Supply in Southwest Sri Lanka
- Index
Chapter 7 - Forests, Hydrological Services, and Agricultural Income: A Case Study from the Western Ghats of India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Appendices
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Environmental Valuation: A Review of Methods
- Chapter 3 Valuing the Environment as a Production Input
- Chapter 4 Should Shrimp Farmers Pay Paddy Farmers?: The Challenges of Examining Salinization Externalities in South India
- Chapter 5 Evaluating Gains from De-Eutrophication of the Dutch Canal in Sri Lanka
- Chapter 6 Pesticide Productivity and Vegetable Farming in Nepal
- Chapter 7 Forests, Hydrological Services, and Agricultural Income: A Case Study from the Western Ghats of India
- Chapter 8 Can Mangroves Minimize Property Loss during Big Storms?: An Analysis of House Damages due to the Super Cyclone in Orissa
- Chapter 9 Valuation of Recreational Amenities from Environmental Resources: The Case of Two National Parks in Northern Pakistan
- Chapter 10 Valuing the Land of Tigers: What Indian Visitors Reveal
- Chapter 11 Estimating Welfare Losses from Urban Air Pollution using Panel Data from Household Health Diaries
- Chapter 12 Children in the Slums of Dhaka: Diarrhoea Prevalence and its Implications
- Chapter 13 Red Wells, Green Wells and the Costs of Arsenic Contamination in Bangladesh
- Chapter 14 Air Quality and Cement Production: Examining the Implications of Point Source Pollution in Sri Lanka
- Chapter 15 Revisiting the Need for Improved Stoves: Estimating Health, Time and Carbon Benefits
- Chapter 16 Benefits from Reduced Air Pollution in Delhi and Kolkata: A Hedonic Property Price Approach
- Chapter 17 The Value of Statistical Life
- Chapter 18 An Assessment of Demand for Improved Household Water Supply in Southwest Sri Lanka
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Tropical forest ecosystems generate multiple benefits to society, among which are goods such as fuelwood, fodder, timber, leaf manure, food and medicines, and services such as carbon sequestration, habitat for wildlife, and biodiversity. One important set of benefits from forest ecosystems is watershed services, which include hydrological regulation (groundwater recharge, low-flow augmentation, and flood control) and soil conservation. Thus, changes in forest conditions are likely to have profound implications for society. This is particularly true in the case of river basins in South Asia, where forests as well as water resources are being used intensively by a large population, often under a highly seasonal rainfall regime.
In spite of their importance, the watershed service benefits of tropical forests and associated ecosystems are perhaps the least well understood and the most contentious of all forest-related benefits. Neither are the physical relationships between forest cover and watershed services adequately understood, nor (partly as a consequence) are their socio-economic impacts accurately assessed. As a result, when it comes to the management of forested watersheds, policy making is dominated by conventional wisdom that assumes that ‘more forest’ of any kind at any location and in place of anything else is ‘better’ for all watershed services for all communities downstream. Such oversimplifications are no longer scientifically tenable.
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- Environmental Valuation in South Asia , pp. 141 - 169Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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