Estimating benefits of forest ecosystem service to support payments for ecosystem services in Mae Sa Watershed, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Abstract

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is a tool for managing the natural resources and environment. It uses for forest resources reservation or improvement for such services by upstream villagers from their conservation activities such as forest plantation, forest fire protection, check dam building and living weir establishment. These ecosystem services render benefits to all stakeholders that should return to support upstream village communities under the beneficiaries-pay concept of PES. Mae Sa watershed is a popular tourist attraction in Chiang Mai with the presence of many tourism activities, resorts, coffee shops and restaurants.  All of the tourism businesses benefit from the forests’ beautiful scenery and pleasant atmosphere. Moreover, a direct benefit of the forest is carbon sequestration regarded as climate regulating services. This research finding evaluated the economic value from conservation activities in Mae Sa watershed in terms of the benefits of forest ecosystem services for recreation and climate regulating. The results revealed that the value of recreation benefits were 19,558,574 baht/year which was willingness to pay at 44.70 and 37.90 baht/person/time. Besides, there were four independent variables that influenced the willingness of tourists to pay, namely: income per month, the frequency of visits, the awareness of management problems of natural resources, environment and starting bid prices.  The value of carbon sequestration from reforestation was analyzed from aboveground biomass, price of carbon credits of forest and land use from the Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace. The value would continue to increase in every year. Thus, it concluded that the benefits of forest ecosystem services would greater than the cost of conservation activities.