Forest protects and conserving biodiversity. But this intangilble benefits are difficult to quantify. If quantified then how give a monetary value to it ($/ha). Please throw some light on it.
Interesting question albeit difficult to answer with respect to value in dollar. We can estimated the cost of benefit of plantation with respect to its wood sale value knowing its maturity period, organic matter inputs through litter, fruits produced. However it is tough to estimate the cost of oxgen generated, birds feed upon, temperature reduction, rainfall infiltration, prevention of soil erosion and several related aspect.
It is important to know the size of the forest patch, influencing factors like gap dynamics, edge effects in respect to neighborhood influences is the forest under strict conservation? What are the consumptive and non consumptive attributes to this forest patch as per the ownership, neighbors and general ecological system? In terms of species specificity what is the Sustainable maximum Yield of the forest patch in relation to growth pattern so that we calculate the senerity criteria system by a formula
Senerity Criteria System (SCS) = Sustainable Maximum Yield (SMY) - Sustainable Maximum Cut (SMC); SCS = SMY-SMC in form of takes of the biomass due to old age, flower and fruit abscision as a result of wind, birds, or any other organisms, poor pollination strategy and poor soil nutrient up take and many other physiological and ecological factors influencing the habitat but above all the in coming solar radiation absorption is another critical factor to measure.
Is the forest patch phenology pattern known, what are the germination, or re sprouting capacity of the species? Is it a mixed species patch or a unilaterally one species implying one must answer you with the knowledge on these and many other factors. What about the propajule pattern?
Forest products such as timber and firewood are selling in a market place and are tangible goods. Price mechanism work perfectly and avoid externality in this connection. On the other hand, biodiversity conservation brings many other benefits which we do not exchange in a market place and leads to externality because there is no price. Resource economics provide several non-market value techniques such as Contingent Valuation and Choice experiment to value such goods. You can read more on this on some papers I published.
• Wattage, P. Mardle, S. and Pascoe, S. (2005) Evaluation of the importance of fisheries management objectives using choice experiments, Ecological Economics, 55, 85-95.
• Wattage, P. and Mardle, S., (2005) Identifying stakeholder preferences towards conservation versus development for a wetland in Sri Lanka, Journal of Environmental Management, 77, 122-132.
• Wattage, P. and Mardle, S, (2008) Total economic value of wetland conservation in Sri Lanka identifying use and non-use values, Journal of Wetland Ecology and Management, Volume 16, Pages 359-369.
• Chae, D., Wattage, P. and Pascoe, S. (2012), Recreational benefits from marine protected area: a travel cost analysis of Lundy Island, UK, Tourism Management, 33 (4) 971-977.
• Wattage, P., Glenn, H., Mardle, S., Van Rensburg, T., Grehan, A. and Foley, N., (2011) Economic value of conserving deep-sea corals in Irish waters: A choice experiment study on Marine Protected areas, Fisheries Research, 107, 59-67.
I think monetizing the value of biodiversity is first of all a technical task for economists that should be done very carefully on a case-by-case basis. However, the value of biodiversity maybe divided in general into three categories, namely "Goods" (e.g. wood, plants used for medicine), "Services" (e.g. pollination), and "Information" (e.g. species diversity, endemism, endangered species). Most endangered species have no resource value. Hence, environmental ethics have to state that species, for example endangered species, are important in their own right, whether or not they are good from the human point of view. Or, how can you evaluate the aesthetic beauty of a forest patch? I think that we have to teach our children that any habitat destruction causes an artificial extinction which shuts down our "tomorrow" because it shuts down speciation and hence, biodiversity.
Some of calculation matrix of biodiversity "value" exist like those related to Habitat Hectare..
Wel, you can quantify environmental services, but I can see no logic on it. Can you quantify the value of clean air, wáter or the conservation of species?