Impact of land use change on ecosystem services: a disaggregated benefit cost analysis of forest ecosystems in Odisha
Student name: Ms Paavani Sachdeva
Guide: Prof Kanchan Chopra
Year of completion: 2014
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: Ecosystem Services refer to the benefits from nature that contribute towards human wellbeing,
such as soil conservation, water recharge, carbon sequestration, non-timber forest
products and much more. However, the existing global pattern of development ignores the
importance of these services with more and more forest land being converted toward nonforestry
purposes, leading to poor availability, quality of ecosystem services. In India this
problem is even more critical with a population exceeding more than 200 million people that
depend on forests for basic survival. This study based on LUC data obtained using GIS, for
Nawarangpur District (1973-2013) and Bhitarakanika Wildlife Sanctuary (1996-2010),
attempts to measure the land use change, and further estimates social positive and negative
costs to the services that accrue from each forest type using a Disaggregated BCA. The study
further defines the distribution of social costs at 3 spatial scales- Local, State of Odisha and
National; and finds that for Nawarangpur the international community has a significant
monetary interest in ensuring that deforestation does not continue, and if possible may even
be reversed through the application of a project such as REDD+. For Bhitarakanika Wildlife
Sanctuary, the results show that except for the first time point (1999) where the international
community has the largest stake, the State of Odisha and the local community have a very
marginal difference in their stake, while the stake of the international community after 1999 is
nearly negligent in comparison. This is a surprising result since Bhitarakanika Wildlife
Sanctuary was accorded the status of a Ramsar Site and is a significant biodiversity hotspot in
South Asia.
