Economic Valuation of Environmental benefits (A Case of Bamdezh Wetland)

Wetlands surrounding communities have enormous benefits of this natural capital. Economic valuation study of society’s preferences for any change in the status of wetlands, can be direct or indirect interests them money and provide useful information to the planners. Bamdezh wetland is one of four large wetland with an area of ​​4000 hectares in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran is located. In this study, using market prices for direct use value of wetland have been calculated for 2015. The interests of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and fishing respectively. Also, using the model of the willingness to pay for nonmarket characteristics of wetlands, including the natural landscape, ecological function and biodiversity has been estimated. The values ​​obtained for the willingness to pay was extended to the whole of society and thus the annual value of use and nonuse values were obtained. Finally, in the absence of social interest rate and using the real interest rate in agriculture and natural resources, all the annual values​​ obtained were converted to the total value. This number was 47289 billion, equivalent to 1.9 billion dollars, which represents positive values ​​and preferences of society to protect its wetlands. So any protection program by policy makers and managers will be actively supported by the population if the level of public awareness about the values improves. The results of this study as a basic reference can be studied in this context.