The Economic value of production and regulation functions of rangeland ecosystems (Case study: Forage production services, Waste treatment and soil formation)

Natural and semi-natural ecosystems have many direct and indirect services. By evaluating the economic value of their various services and functions can be a step towards effective management and maintaining. The sheikh-mousa rangeland ecosystem in Babol city, in the past few decades, experienced harsh human interferences including construction and intense livestock grazing that has caused. The services and features of this important ecosystem are under extinction threat. Therefore, the current study was investigated the economic value of forage production as a production function, and waste treatment and soil formation as regulation actions in the sheikh-mousa rangeland ecosystem. In the current study, the valuation of services for the year 2017 is done by Replacement cost and market price methods. The results showed that the total regulation value (waste treatment and soil formation) and production value are 2615 & 8348 million Rials (62261.06 & 198767.75$) per year for the total area of sheik-mousa rangeland ecosystem, respectively. Also, the value in each hectare of both regulation and production functions was estimated 251269.7 Rials (6$) and 802176 Rials (19$) respectively. The results show that the regulatory functions have a high economic value as well as the production function of the rangeland ecosystem. Therefore, it is suggested to prioritize the plans and pay attention to them in order to reduce the environmental costs and the sustainability of this ecosystem.