Benefits and Provisioning Value of Ecosystem Services at Klong Thadee Sub-basin, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

The study aimed to studying social and economic of local community, forest resources utilization and assessing value of provisioning ecosystem services of Klong Thadee Sub-basin. Data was collected through interview with 320 sample households in 5 villages of Kamlone sub-district, Lan Saka District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistic and the calculation of grand total provisioning ecosystem services of watershed area. The results revealed that majority of sample group was female (52.19%), mostly of them having primary level of education, the majority of occupation was fruit orchard with average annual household income of 403,081.08 baht/household/year. There were five categories of resource uses including food, fuel-wood, medicinal plants, materials and fibers, and water. The grand total provisioning ecosystem services was at 736,905,957.72 baht/year comprising 731,899,488.19 baht for food, 305,594 baht for fuel-wood, 634,390.16 baht for herbal medicine, 1,912,915.25 baht for materials and fibers, and 2,153,570.12 baht for water utilization, respectively. The sample group was mostly agreed with the measure of resource rehabilitation, conservation and utilization. However, the government agency should define clear forest and resource utilization zone and also define the roles of community in resource utilization. In addition, the promotion of awareness in natural resources conservation to local community.