further assess and integrated economic values of biodiversity and economic services into the decision making process. In the Lao PDR, the most comprehensive analysis of the economic value of biodiversity, although now several years old, was carried out as a background report for the Lao PDR’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan by IUCN(IUCN, 2002). The study reports that the Lao PDR’s 945,000ha of rivers, water bodies and other natural and constructed wetlands are found to provide fish and other aquatic animals worth an estimated US$101.01 million per year for household subsistence, income and small-scale trade, at an average of US$106/ha.
The same study meanwhile finds that, across all of the recorded 11.6 million ha of forest in the country, local non-timber forest product use is worth US$159.87 million per year, or US$14/ha for household subsistence, and US$25.65 million or US$2.2/ha for household income (an average of US$36 per household). The domestic commercial value of NTFPs is US$15.25 million, or US$1.3/ha, and exports are worth US$31.80 million, or US$2.7/ha. Forests also yield fuel wood and charcoal worth US$3.77 million a year at the local level (average of US$40 per household, or US$0.3/ha) and US$0.82 million, or US$0.07/ha for commercial users, and timber products to a value of US$17.05 a year.
Phongvisay (2013) confirmed that the people of the Lao PDR, especially people who live in the rural communities, still depend upon the fish and other aquatic animals for their reliable sources of animal and protein intake. The same study also highlighted that around 24.5 kg of inland fish is estimated for fish consumption per capita (kg/capita/year), while other aquatic animals account for approximately 4.1 kg and sea products at around 0.4 kg, to make a total of 29 kg per capital per year of fish and aquatic products which are consumed.
This consumption per capita, and per year, can then be easily converted into monetary values – by multiplying the average cost per kilo of those aquatic products– and to show the financial value of aquatic biodiversity. The Lao PDR’s wetlands provide vital environmental, economic, and cultural services to the country’s people. In addition to ecosystem services such as providing habitat for a wide variety of species, flood protection and groundwater renewal, wetlands also supply natural resources that are central to livelihoods in the Lao PDR, from fish, fodder, and tourism opportunities. But the value of wetlands is to still be estimated.
In the capital, Vientiane, the value of That Luang Marsh ecosystem services has been assessed by IUCN and WWF (Gerrard, 2004) and illustrated as an example of economic valuation techniques by USAID(Talberth, 2015): - the “avoided cost” technique : ..without the marsh, by the year 2020, damages from annual flood events are expected to be over US$3.5 million higher than they are now, or - the “replacement cost” technique : ...without the marsh, the city would have to spend over US$ 1.7 million replacing its water purification services with new water treatments. 7