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Hail Haor Wetland: Estimation of Economic Value

Luke A. Colavito
Program Officer
Agricultural Program Winrock International, 1611 N. Kent Street, Suite 600 Arlington, Virginia 22209, USA

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The MACH project is an innovative integrated pilot program to develop approaches and to demonstrate sustainable management of water resources including fish, plants, agriculture, livestock, forestry, and wildlife over entire wetland ecosystems. Wetlands in Bangladesh provide a critical source of income and nutrition for millions of rural Bangladesh’s poorest people. Unfortunately, the productivity of these habitats is in decline due to over-use, increased rates of sedimentation from watershed degradation, pollution, diversion of water for agricultural uses and the conversion of wetlands for agricultural and urban development. MACH takes a multi-disciplinary participatory approach to address wetland decline. MACH is pioneering a variety of activities to reduce overuse of wetland resources and to preserve wetland resources from degradation in selected project sites. Examples of these activities include the development of fish sanctuaries, alternative income programs to reduce seasonal pressures, reforestation of tributaries to reduce sedimentation and reconnecting water bodies to preserve wetland productivity. The MACH approach includes close integration of project-initiated resource user committees with local government structures to ensure sustainability. MACH is a GoB project that is being implemented by four non-government organizations, Winrock International, the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), the Centre for Natural Resources Studies (CNRS) and CARITAS-Bangladesh with support from USAID. Currently, the program is working at three sites that are representative of the freshwater wetland ecotypes of Bangladesh. This study was conducted in the Hail Haor MACH site in Moulvibazar District. Hail Haor is an extensive wetland area that reaches a maximum flooded size of 12,300 hectares (1999 measurement).

Keywords: Economic value, Hail Haor, MACH project, Haor, Biodiversity

Location: Moulvibazar district, Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Commodity: Haor, Wetland, Socioeconomic

Objectives:

To determine a lower limit on the economic value of the Hail Haor MACH project site.

Methodology:

This study has been undertaken to develop a methodological framework and to calculate an estimate of the economic value of the MACH Hail Haor wetland site centered in Moulvibazar district. The estimated value in this study should be considered a conservative lower bound on the wetland’s economic value. Estimation of wetland value is an important and complex task that has not been tackled systematically in Bangladesh. To justify water resource preservation and investment to improve productivity it is important to establish that sustainable management of water resources results in the generation of economic value that exceeds the economic value produced under alternative arrangements. Wetland areas produce a wide variety of economic benefits. Some benefits can be more readily identified and quantified than other benefits. Direct benefits such as fisheries production, production of aquatic vegetation and products can be estimated from sample surveys and monitoring of beneficiaries. Other benefits such as recreational value, flood control value, water quality improvement, pasture value, biodiversity, water table impacts, have real and very significant economic value but are much more challenging to estimate. Failure to include the economic value of all wetland outputs has clearly biased development efforts in Bangladesh towards the conversion of wetlands to agricultural use and to neglect of wetland areas. To facilitate the application of the approaches developed for this study a bioeconomic model was developed. The bioeconomic model is an Excel-based application that will be a tool for researchers and practitioners to understand, refine and extend the economic analysis performed for this study relating to economic and biological parameters.

Source of Information: Estimation of Economic Value Report, October 2001, MACH Project, Winrock International.

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The annual economic output value estimated for Hail Haor is Tk 454 million (USD 8 million). The net present value of this benefit stream over 15 years is Tk 4.7 billion (USD 83 million).The net annual value of nine selected Hail Haor wetland economic outputs (see Chapter 2.0 and 3.0 for details). Value is presented in both absolute terms for Hail Haor and per hectare of the Hail Haor maximum area. It should be noted that the per hectare values are for the total Hail Haor output divided by the maximum Haor area. For this calculation, the recorded 1999 maximum water area was used (12,300 Ha). Commercial fishing represents 12.4% of total value and subsistence fishing accounts for 18.4% of the annual Haor value. Significantly the annual value of non-fish aquatic products including aquatic grasses, plants for human consumption, snails, mussels and other products is 28% of the total value. This is the largest single economic output. The importance of dry season pastureland is also very significant at 9% of total value. The share of value for recreation and flood control are 2% and 5% respectively. It should also be noted that the current value of boro rice produced within the Haor wetland area is included (Tk 63 million). The foreign project investment attributed to biodiversity preservation is Tk 43 million (9.6%). This represents the discounted value of the MACH project investments and likely foreign development assistance to be provided to Bangladesh due to the biodiversity aspect of the Hail Haor wetland. A number of foreign aid programs and efforts (IUCN, ICLARM, DFID, and Danida) include a strong emphasis on investment for biodiversity preservation.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings