Evaluación económica de los servicios ecosistémicos del recurso vegetal de la parroquia Punin, cantón Riobamba

Abstract

Introduction: The valuation of ecosystem services is not new according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it considers that ecosystem goods can be valued at 125 trillion USD, their maintenance or degradation has an impact on gains or losses of values ​​due to what is required to perform analysis and evaluations for development decision making. Punín is one of the rural parishes of the Riobamba canton, its population amounts to 5,976 people and is divided into 23 communities that are mostly recognized as indigenous, the productive economic activities are agriculture and livestock, a large part of the production is commercialized and other part is used for self-consumption. Objective: To economically estimate the ecosystem services of the productive plant resource. Methodology: An analysis of the perception of environmental services and the willingness to pay for the conservation of the plant resource was carried out through the application of 359 in 8 communities selected by the criteria of number of inhabitants and agricultural production area, the inhabitants ranked the Ecosystem services using a Likert scale, the sociodemographic variables that affect the perception of environmental services were analyzed and the economic value of the resource was estimated using the contingent method. Results: The most valued ecosystem services are provisioning services, followed by support and regulation services that classify them as very important and cultural services as important. The age variable affects the perception of supporting ecosystem services. The calculated DAP is 5,393.63 USD / year, the value of direct use of the productive plant resource was established at 4,038,539.60 USD / year and the total economic value through the contingent method amounts to 4043933.23 USD / year. Conclusions: The variable level of education significantly influences the perception of support services, possibly because this category of services is the most complex to distinguish. The TEV of the productive plant resource calculated using the contingent method can vary according to the demand for the good in the market and the main products of the parish commercialization such as vegetables and tubers present constant price fluctuations in the market