Economic valuation of ecosystem services for the sustainable management of agropastoral dams. A case study of the Sakabansi dam, northern Benin

authored by

Check Abdel Kader Baba, Jochen Hack

Abstract

Agro-pastoral dams are multiple purpose water reservoirs primarily constructed to help pastoralists and riparian farmers address water shortages in rural areas. These dams are often surrounded by a buffer zone intended to minimize sedimentation and evapotranspiration. In spite of the importance of these dams for riparian communities’ livelihoods, their sustainability is nowadays challenged by various management issues underlined by stakeholders’ perception and valuation of ecosystem services provided by the dam system (reservoir-buffer zone). Taking the agro-pastoral dam of Sakabansi village in northern Benin as a case study, we assessed, quantified and valued both actual and potential benefits derived by riparian communities from the dam system using the ecosystem services cascade model as a conceptual framework. The Aggregated Economic Value of services provided by the dam system was estimated to 128,166 € based on nine ecosystem services. Fishery activities, despite causing conflicts between two major stakeholders of the dam, represented less than 0.09% of the Aggregated Economic Value. This suggests the crucial need to raise communities’ awareness on the economic value of various other benefits they derived from the dam system in order to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of benefits and costs. We finally discussed the relevance of our valuation outputs in analysing trade-offs among services and in fostering stakeholder dialogues to inform land allocation and management at the local scale.

External Organisation(s)

Technische Universität Darmstadt

Type

Article

Journal

Ecological indicators

Volume

107

ISSN

1470-160X

Publication date

12.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Decision Sciences(all), Ecology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105648 (Access: Closed)