Quantifying habitat and biodiversity services and hotspots of Indian forests: A GIS-Based assessment

• Published in: Environmental and sustainability indicators Vol. 23; p. 100442
• Main Authors: Pandey, Rajiv, Mehta, Divya, Tiwari, Lakshmikant, Kumar, Ranjeet, Dogra, Rakesh Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.09.2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: Ecosystem service; Forest conservation; Forest management; Habitat fragmentation; Species richness; Well-being; Habitat fragmentation; Forest conservation; Forest management; Well-being; Ecosystem service; Species richness
• ISSN: 2665-9727; 2665-9727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.indic.2024.100442

The present study attempted to quantify and value of supporting services of India's forest ecosystem. The supporting services comprises by habitat and biodiversity services across India's sixteen forest types was estimated using data for various factors through Remote Sensing and secondary sources as per the proposed model. Indicators were combined using an Analytical Hierarchical Process, and various class of each service was also estimated using the equal interval method in QGIS. Hotspot analysis was used to identify key areas for forest conservation. The results suggest that littoral and swamp forest had maximum habitat services and tropical semi-evergreen forest had maximum biodiversity service and tropical wet evergreen forest had maximum supporting services. Out of total forest of country, 11.52%, 17.48% and 10.34% forest area was having high value for habitat, biodiversity and supporting service, respectively. Hotspot analysis revealed that 22.93%, 23.61% and 26.44% Indian forest had high habitat, biodiversity and supporting service, respectively. The annual per hectare economic value using Benefit Transfer method for habitat, biodiversity and supporting services of forests was US$ 4330.71, US$ 5987.38 and US$ 10,624.23, respectively. The annual economic value of habitat, biodiversity and supporting services from Indian forests was US$ 303,506.09 million, US$ 419,609.45 million and US$ 744,570.85 million, respectively. In totality, tropical dry deciduous forest, tropical moist deciduous and tropical semi-deciduous forest had high economic value for supporting service. Monetary valuation of forest ecosystem services assists to determine the net present value and costs for conservation interventions. Biodiversity hotspots as the Western Ghats, Indo-Burma region, and Eastern Himalayas offer high ecosystem service and thus attach prime importance for conservation, while the Western Himalayas, with lower ecosystem service, requires customized ecosystem management strategies. •Habitat and Biodiversity forest ecosystem services of India's forest is estiamted.•Habitat services was maximum for Littoral forests for overstorey vegetation and tropical thorn forest for understorey vegetation.•Biodiversity service was maximum for tropical semi-evergreen and minimum for littoral and swamp forests.•Supporting services was higher for tropical wet evergreen forests of India.