Economic Valuation of Rural Wetlands and Household Food Security: A Case Study from the North-West Bangladesh

Abstract

Wetland ecosystem plays an important role in Bangladesh’s rural economy by contributing to household income generation and food security of the neighboring areas. We have examined this issue with regards to the North-Western region of Bangladesh-- we have selected one particular wetland in the district of Pabna (Podmobil) to estimate direct economic benefits from its multiple uses as well as contributions to household food security. We find that one major issue is neighboring households’ access to the wetlands (i.e., open-access wetlands as opposed to privately-leased wetlands). We conducted a household structured questionnaire survey among the surrounding population of Podmobil. The questionnaire survey reveals that the loss of access to the wetland caused by changes in the management practices of Podmobil adversely affected particularly poorer households’ food security since they could not participate in the new leasing arrangements and experienced a reduced access to this wetland. These results are important for wetland conservation and preservation policy formulation with regards to household food security in the rural areas