Analysing Economic Contribution of Provisioning Forest Ecosystem Services: A case of Selected Indian States

Abstract

Forests support 80% of the world's life. Forests are warriors who maintain our world healthy and us alive, from the deepest bases of their layers to the tops of trees' crowns. Forests are a barrier against erosion, landslides and avalanches. They provide us with clean air, purify our rivers' drinking water, and attract the rain we need to grow food. Despite this, we do not care for them. Humans have destroyed 80% of the planet's natural forest cover in just a few thousand years. We lose the most crucial barrier against climate change with every forest that disappears. However, that's not all. Forests provide food and shelter to almost 2 billion rural people. It is here that they find food, shelter, and water. Forests provided area for habitation and agriculture, goods and materials for building, woody biomass for fuel and energy, and directly for food and nourishment prior to the industrial revolution. The conversion of forests to cultivable land was crucial to the expansion of the agricultural revolution. The pattern of deforestation that occurs in conjunction with an initial period of economic expansion, followed by a period in which forest acreage and cover stabilise, and then slowly begin to rebound, is strikingly uniform across the world. Forests make non monetary contributions to family and national economies that are 3 to 5 times greater than publicly acknowledged financial contributions. Estimates of the number of people who benefit directly or indirectly from forests such as jobs, forest products, and direct or indirect contributions to livelihoods and incomes are difficult to put into context. The lack of consolidated data on the economic contributions of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and their value is a key stumbling block to a better understanding of the forest sector's contributions.