An Analytical Comparison on the Economic Value of Environmental Resources of Wetlands in Iran Compared to Global Experiences

Valuation of wetlands is an important tool in the hands of environmental managers and decision-makers to justify the general costs of wetland conservation and management activities. Estimating and presenting economic values facilitates the design of sustainable wetland policies and enables the incorporation of wetland economic values into the cost-benefit analysis of development plans. In this study, the total economic value (total of market and non-market values) for all of the six wetland ecosystems under study (namely, “Hamon”, “Shadegan”, “Arjan and Parishan”, “Miankaleh and the Bay of Gorgan”, “Anzali”, and “Bamdej”) was estimated at 258018 billion IRR (8600600000 US$) in the base year of 2016. The total discounted economic value of the studied wetlands (over a 30-year period), at a discount rate of 16.5%, was estimated to be equivalent to 25201579 billion IRR. The share of total economic value (total of market and non-market values) of the studied wetlands from the country’s GDP in 2016, was estimated to be 2.32%. In addition, the average value per hectare of these wetlands was estimated to be 29.6% of the value of global values reported by De Groot et al (2012). By conducting adequate studies on the economic valuation of wetland ecosystems and other types of ecosystems in Iran and achieving national index values, the annual values of ecosystem services is projected to be likely to exceed the total GDP. It would be of the utmost importance to publish the results of this study and offer the research findings to policy-makers and stakeholders, as they would make ware of the economic values of wetlands and shift their efforts towards sustainable management of wetland resources.