A Guiding Model for Economic Valuation and Estimation of Environmental Damage Costs to the Iranian Wetland Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Wetland valuation is an important tool available to environmental managers and decision makers to justify the overal costs of wetland conservation and management activities. Currently, policymakers and planners do not have the right toolbox with easy access to assess the economic value of wetland ecosystems. It is obvious that quoting quantitative and monertary values in expressing the value of each resource will be an efficient and effective tool to justify the goals of sustainable development and environmental protection, and this is possible by having a clear guidance model. Economic valuation of ecosystem services is a useful tool to support ecosystem management decisions and help decision makers to protect the ecosystem more effectively. Estimating the economic value and costs of environmental damage to wetland ecosystems can be effective in preserving values and preventing their degradation. The aim of this study is to integrate the economic valuation ​​and costs of environmental damage to the Iranian wetlands ecosystem services as part of the process of determining the economic value of natural resources. Existence of basic and practical model and guidance for wetland valuation can help interested users in identifying values, choosing valuation techniques appropriate to each value, and in general, guiding in the correct way of valuing goods and services and also in applying management and executive policies in line with the goals of sustainable development. The main purpose of this study is to show, using a conceptual framework, how to estimate the environmental values and costs of wetland ecosystem services. In this study, by reviewing selected articles and instructions related to the research topic, step-by-step steps for estimating the economic values ​​and costs of environmental damage to the Iranian wetlands ecosystem services are presented.

Keywords

• a guiding model
• economic valuation
• damage costs
• environmental services
• wetlands
• iran