Abstract

Natural resources play important roles in ecosystem service delivery, more especially in rural households where livelihoods depend heavily on natural resources for the delivery of ecosystem services. The various benefits derived from natural ecosystems such as food, medicines and carbon sequestration support human life and sustain its well-being. This study tried to value the streams of ecosystem services derived from rangeland in Segen area people zone 16214 hectare. Rangeland forage for livestock, fuel wood, construction wood, water resources, medicinal plants and passive or non-use value from the communal rangeland were estimated. Valuation was done to incorporate both marketed and non-marketed natural resources which were used within the production year. The total economic value for the area was estimated at ETB 175,136,405,914, Value of rangeland forage was estimated at ETB 170,050,535,419, valuation of fuel wood was estimated at ETB 2,416,576,020, valuation of construction wood was estimated at 2,243,520,000, valuation of water resource was estimated at 6,637,927, valuation of medicinal plant was estimated at ETB 357,600,548 and valuation of passive or non-use range land resource was estimated at 61,536,000. The non-use value was estimated by eliciting the willingness to pay for the rehabilitation of the degraded rangeland resources using a contingent valuation method. To assess the influence of the variables on the positive reported values of the WTP, the study considered the tobit econometric model. As to bit regression output indicated that increasing age had a negative influence on the WTP value and the increase in monthly income and the number of tropical livestock unit led to an increase in the WTP value. There were a number of challenges and opportunities identified from this study in communal rangeland and policy decision should act according to recommendation forwarded to improve rangeland resource.

Keywords: Rangeland; Total Economic Value; Willingness to pay; Tobit Model