Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services of Bamboo in Tanzania

Abstract

Deforestation increases in many countries but globally bamboo forests increased and replaces demand of forest resources which offset supply. The study employ adapted benefit transfer resulted from common environmental value assessment methods, the economic value of bamboo forest ecosystem services in Tanzania was evaluated for water conservation, carbon fixation and oxygen release, soil conservation, nutrients accumulation, and biodiversity conservation. The results reveals that the total ecosystem services of bamboo in Tanzania is 39.64 trillion TZS year-1 and value per unit area was 38.7 million TZS ha-1 year-1. Among them water conservation services and carbon fixation and oxygen release services contributed the highest values which was 21.42 trillion TZS year-1 and 10.51 trillion TZS year-1 totally accounting for 54%, 26.5% of the total value of the ecosystem services. It could be seen that water conservation and carbon fixation and oxygen release were the main services provided by the bamboo forest ecosystem in Tanzania. The evaluation results could provide references for the subsequent evaluation of bamboo forests and ecological benefits.