Research Paper

Economic valuation of wetland ecosystem services in northeastern part of Vietnam

¹ Faculty of Geography, VNU University of Science, 334 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam
² Center for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
³ Geography Institute, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cay Giay, Ha Noi, Vietnam

^* Corresponding author: kinhbachus@gmail.com

Received: 13 July 2021
Accepted: 20 March 2022

Abstract

Coastal wetlands have been heavily exploited in the world. Valuation of ecosystem services help to provide the necessary improvements in coastal policy and management to monitor the driving forces of ecological changes in wetland ecosystems. In this study, the monetary values of wetland ecosystem services (WES) in the northeastern part of Vietnam were evaluated based on the integration of different quantitative methods, including interview, remote sensing, ecological modeling, statistic, and cost-benefit analyses. Particularly, seven wetland ecosystems and eleven services obtained from them were identified. As a result, the annual net WES value is evaluated at more than 390 million USD. The intensive and industrial aquaculture ecosystems in the northeastern part represent the highest economic value with more than 2100 USD/ha/year. A “planning” scenario was formulated to predict WES for the next ten years based on policy changes published by local managers. The framework developed here can serve as a decision support tool for environmental and economic managers in wetlands planning.