Assessing value changes of soil and water conservation services of Zagros Forests under canopy cover change scenarios

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 Corresponding author, Assistant Prof., Forests and Rangelands Research Department, West Azerbaijan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Urmia, Iran

2 Prof., Department of Forestry and Forest Economics, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

     The socioeconomic situation in the Zagros Forests has provided conditions for the overexploitation in this region, which has raised concerns about the intensified decline of ecosystem services in these forests. In this study, soil and water protection services (as the most important regulatory functions of the Zagros Forests) were economically estimated in the Sarvabad basin of Kurdistan province. Then, the trend of change in their values was examined in two scenarios of 1) reaching all the forests of the basin with 30-50% canopy (first scenario) and 2) conversion of forests to sparse forests with 5% canopy (second scenario). The results showed that the average annual value for soil protection, i.e. preventing land loss and sediment control is 27002.82 IRR per ha, while the average annual value for water protection is 790000 IRR per ha. We also estimated the changes in the total annual value of soil protection function by assuming the first scenario, which increased by 34.83%. In case of the second scenario, it decreased by 37.3%. Moreover, the first scenario was able to add 29.96% to the value of the water protection function of these forests, whereas 33.54% of the value of the water protection function decreased for the second scenario. Decrease in the value of ecosystem services due to the tree canopy reduction in this study emphasizes the importance of protection and restoration of the Zagros Forests ecosystem to maintain and provide valuable ecosystem services.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Forest and Poplar Research
Volume 29, Issue 3 - Serial Number 85
January 2022
Pages 259-272

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