Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ecosystem Services
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoser

Valuing forest-based ecosystem services in Bangladesh: Implications for T

research and policies
Sepul K. Baruaa, , Marco Boscolob, Illias Animonb
⁎

a
NIRAS International Consulting, Finland
b
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Ecosystem services (ES) are not adequately accounted for in policy decisions in Bangladesh. This article takes
Ecosystem services valuation stock of existing literature on economic valuation of forest-based ES. Even if ES valuation has started to receive
Sundarbans attention in policy discussions, their literature is still scarce in the country. We compiled 67 value estimates for
Trees outside forests 19 ES from 30 studies covering all major forest zones of Bangladesh. Most of them focused on the Sundarbans.
Coastal forests
Other forest zones were neglected or inadequately addressed. Most studies focused on provisioning services. The
Hill forests
Village forests
available estimates indicate that forests of Bangladesh are worth USD 840 ha−1 yr−1 on average. The value was
the highest for the Sundarbans (USD 2176 ha−1 yr−1) while the hill forests’ value was a distant second with USD
1066 ha−1 yr−1. The variability in valuation estimates could possibly be explained by the different meth-
odologies employed, or the narrow geographic focus of many studies. The review indicates the need of sys-
tematically researching the demand, supply and values of ES over time. This is critical to support decision
making which ensures that the development of Bangladesh does not occur at the expense of natural ecosystems
and of the people that depend on them.

1. Introduction
With nearly 1200 people living per square kilometre (km2),
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world
(World Bank, 2018). About 19 million people depend directly (Rahman
and Ahmed, 2016) and tens of millions more depend indirectly on
forests and other natural resources for their livelihoods. These people
mostly live in rural areas1 which host about 61% of Bangladesh’s total
population (World Bank, 2017).
Forest-based ES play an important role in the livelihood and well-
being of people of Bangladesh. Important ES include provisioning ser-
vices such as fuelwood, food, fodder, timber and house construction
materials. Regulating services such as water regulation, erosion control,
protection from sea storms and tidal surges particularly in coastal areas,
and climate change adaptation and mitigation are also important.
Among the cultural services, recreation is considered the most im-
portant one (see, e.g. Uddin et al., 2013a,b).
However, many policymakers and resource managers in
Bangladesh, as in many other countries, often view ES as having no
significant value (Broitman et al., 2015). Many are not even aware that
ES exists and how their provision is influenced by human activities,
while many other value them less than other potential ecosystem
benefits. At a time when Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) is
growing at a sustained pace of over 6% per year (World Bank, 2018),
and the country is investing in sizable infrastructure projects, it is im-
portant for planners and analysts to consider the economic value of ES
in planning and programmatic decisions. This is particularly important
since trade-offs often exist between infrastructure development and the
supply of ES (see, e.g. Hayes, 2014). Infrastructures may be developed
at the direct expense of, and may also have indirect impacts on natural
resources. All these can finally affect the supply of ES.
Economic valuation of ES can aid assessments of the impacts on
ecosystems of projects, programs or policies. ES and their valuation
have been gaining increasing attention particularly in the policy do-
main in Bangladesh in the recent years. Notably, the Country
Investment Plan (CIP) for the Environment, Forestry and Climate
Change (EFCC) 2016–2021, which was approved by the Government of
Bangladesh (GoB) in 2017, adopted the enhanced provision of ES as its
overarching goal (GoB, 2017). The new Bangladesh Forestry Master
Plan 2017–2036 (Bangladesh Forest Department [BFD], 2017) under-
lined the importance of conducting ES valuation to inform decision
making. The importance of forest-based ES was also highlighted in

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sepul.barua@alumni.helsinki.fi, sepul.barua@niras.fi (S.K. Barua), marco.boscolo@fao.org (M. Boscolo), illias.animon@fao.org (I. Animon).
1
High dependency of rural people on forests and tree resources is mainly due to higher poverty level in those areas compared to the urban areas.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101069
Received 18 December 2018; Received in revised form 9 January 2020; Accepted 14 January 2020
2212-0416/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

many other policies and plans such as the draft National Forest Policy, Table 1
the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, the National Area under different forest zones in Bangladesh.19
Adaptation Plan, the Coastal Zone Policy, the Nationally Appropriate Forest zone Area (ha) % of country’s total area
Plan of Action, and the Land Use Policy. The importance of ES valuation
for monitoring the progress and the impacts of such programmatic The Sundarbans (Bangladesh Part) 600,000 4.1%
Coastal forests 196,000 1.3%
decisions on ecosystems is likely to grow in the future in Bangladesh.
Hill forests 670,000 4.5%
Despite a growing attention to ES in policy documents in recent Sal forests 120,000 0.8%
years, scientific literature on ES valuation remains limited in Village forests and TOF 1, 920,000 13.0%
Bangladesh. ES being a relatively new area of research may be a reason
for this. To the best of the authors’ knowledge there is no comprehen- Source: BFD (2017), Chowdhury et al. (2016), Potapov et al. (2017).
19
sive study covering ES and their valuation in the entire country and our The Bangladesh Forest Department has finished a countrywide forest in-
article is the first attempt to fill this knowledge gap. ventory with the technical assistance of UN FAO in June 2019. The inventory
results, which are expected provide better figures on the extent of forest re-
This article takes stock of the existing literature on the economic
sources in the country, has not be officially released as of July 2019.
valuation of forest-based ES so as to:

• Qualitatively assess the most important ES provided by forests in

Bangladesh,
• Identify and summarize existing valuation studies of these services,
• Identify and analyse gaps in ES valuation, and
• Provide recommendations for future direction in research and policy
implementation.

The rest of the article is structured as four sections. The first section
briefly introduces the state of forests in Bangladesh and describes the
five main forest zones. The next section describes the material and
methods of the study. The fourth section contains the results and dis-
cussion and the fifth provides conclusions and recommendations for
further research, capacity development, investment planning and policy
making. The final section discusses the limitations of the study.

2. Forest resources in Bangladesh

About 2.6 million hectares (mha) of land in Bangladesh is legally

defined as forests. This amounts to 19.8% of the country’s total land
area2 (BFD, 2017). However, even if legally defined as forest, a sig-
nificant portion of this area has been cleared of tree cover and is now
under other land uses. According to the Global Forest Resource As-
sessment 2015 (FAO, 2015), the country has only about 1.43 mha of
forests that complies with the FAO definition of forests (see footnote 2).
Moreover, there are trees outside forests (TOF), which mostly do not
fall under the legally defined forest area. The forest and tree resources
in Bangladesh can be grouped into five major zones (Table 1 and
Fig. 1).
The forest zones are described below.
The Sundarbans: It is a natural mangrove forest located in the south- Fig. 1. Forest zones of Bangladesh. Source: Akhter et al. (2016).
western part of Bangladesh and south-east India. Between the two
countries, the Sundarbans cover an area of 1 mha, of which 0.6 mha are plantations (BFD, 2017).
in Bangladesh. It is the largest continuous mangrove forest in the world Hill forests: Hill forests are the tropical evergreen and semi-ever-
(Chowdhury et al., 2016). The Sundarbans hosts rich biodiversity in- green forests located in the south-eastern and eastern parts of the
cluding 334 floral and 269 faunal species (BFD, 2017). These include country (BFD, 2017). These forests are degraded and enriched through
the sundri tree (Heritiera fomes) – after which the forest is named – and plantations in many parts (Chowdhury et al., 2016).
the world-renowned Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris). The Sundar- Sal forests: Sal forests are the tropical moist deciduous forests lo-
bans was recognized as a World Heritage Site (about 0.14 million ha of cated in the central and western parts of the country. These forests are
it) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi- highly degraded and fragmented into small patches (Chowdhury et al.,
zation (UNESCO) in 1997. This article considers the Bangladeshi part of 2016, BFD, 2017).
the Sundarbans. Village forests and trees outside forests (TOF): Village forests are the
Coastal forests: They consist mainly of plantations raised through trees grown in and around the homesteads in rural areas of the country.
afforestation and reforestation along the coastline and in offshore is- This forests often do not meet the FAO definition of ‘forests’ (see
lands in the southern part of Bangladesh. Keora (Sonneratia apetala) and Footnote 2), and thus can be considered as TOF. TOFs are also grown
goran (Avicennia officinalis) are the main species used in the coastal along roadside, canals, embankments and fallow land across the
country. Strip plantations have also been established under social for-
2
estry program in various parts of Bangladesh (BFD, 2017). The village
All land that is legally defined as forest land do not comply with FAO de-
forests and TOF are very important for the rural economy of Bangla-
finition of forests (FRA, 2015), i.e. land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with
desh. Various studies (e.g. Barua and Kumar, 2015) reported that nearly
minimum trees heights of 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 % or
trees able to reach these thresholds in situ.
80% of the timber and fuelwood demand of the country is met by these

2
S.K. Barua, et al.
forest resources.
3. Material and methods
3.1. Identification and filtering of literature
The first step of this study was the identification of literature on
forest-based ES and their valuation in Bangladesh. We searched for the
literature using four scientific databases: Scopus, CABI Direct, CABI
Forest Science Database and Google Scholar. The terms used for sear-
ches were, ‘ecosystem services’, ‘timber’, ‘fuelwood’, ‘fish’, ‘non-timber
forest products (NTFP)’, ‘valuation’, value’, ‘forests’, ‘Bangladesh’, ‘hill’,
‘hill forests’, ‘sal’, ‘sal forests’, ‘village forests’, ‘trees outside forests’,
‘social forests’, ‘roadside plantations’, homestate forests’, ‘home-
gardens’, ‘coastal plantations’, ‘coastal forests’ ‘the Sundarbans’ and
‘mangrove forests’. The search and filtering procedure is explained in
detail in Annex A.
Apart from scientific literature, we identified the key policy docu-
ments (i.e. that cover the entire country or a particular ecological zone
within) of Bangladesh related to forest and other natural resources by
searching the websites of the relevant ministries of the Government of
Bangladesh (GoB). Such documents included the Forest Master Plan
2017–2036 (BFD, 2016a), the 7th Five-Year Plan [7FYP] (GED, 2015),
the National Forest Policy (Bangladesh Forest Department, 2016c), the
Land Use Plan, the Coastal Zone Plan, the Bangladesh Climate Change
Strategy and Action Plan (MoEF, 2009), the National Adaptation Pro-
gramme of Action (NAPA) (MoEF, 2005) and the Country Investment
Plan for Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (EFCC CIP) (GoB,
2017).
3.2. Qualitative assessment of ES
The collected scientific literature and policy documents were re-
viewed carefully and ES provided by different forest zones were identi-
fied. A limited number of experts were also consulted to ensure that
potentially important services not included in literature would not be
neglected. The identified ES were categorized following the Version V5.1
of the mapping and assessment methodology suggested by the Common
International Standard for Ecosystem Services (CICES).3 The justification
for using the CICES methodology is that it is a widely accepted frame-
work of ES classification and environmental accounting worldwide. The
Version V5.1 of the CICES methodology provides a detailed classifica-
tion: ES are first divided into three sections, i.e. provisioning, regulation
and maintenance, and cultural. These sections are then divided into 10
divisions which are further divided into groups, and then groups into
classes. Because of this elaborate classification it is easier to compare
studies and assessments by using the CICES methodology than by other
ones, e.g. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005).
Important ES for each forest zone were then classified into three
levels of importance4 – high, medium and low. The levels are defined as
follows: high included the ES that are perceived to be very important for
livelihood, conservation or the economy in the policy documents
mentioned above and, in the literature reviewed. Medium included the
ones that are perceived to be fairly important, while low included the
ones perceived to be important for livelihoods, conservation and
economy in the forest zones of their origin or entire country. The above
qualitative assessment will enable to point to knowledge gaps about ES
perceived as important and yet without proper assessments (see Section
4.4).
3
The CICES is developed by the European Environment Agency (see http://
cices.eu/). Please see also Haines-Young and Potschin (2011, 2017).
4
The level of importance given to the ES is based on, due to the lack of official
classification systems at the national level, qualitative criteria adopted by au-
thors. As such it remains subject to possible improvements in the future.
3
Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069
3.3. Compilation of ES values
We compiled both the economic and livelihood5 values of the ES.
While compiling the values, we focused on flow (e.g. timber production
and carbon sequestration) only, not the stock (e.g. timber stock and
carbon storage). This allowed us to estimate and compare annual ES
values as explained below. The ES stock always represents a single point
of time, while the flow is measured over a certain period of time. More
specifically, flow being the difference between stock at two points of
time can be measured for an entire period and so its value can be an-
nualized, while that of stock cannot be (see Barua, 2019). This means
the values of stock and flow cannot be compared.
The identified valuation studies were done in different years and the
estimates were presented in various currencies. Also, some studies gave
total value of ES per year for an entire forest area or ecosystem and
some gave values per ha per year. For village forests and TOF, the total
values of timber, fuelwood and bamboo are given per extraction cycle,
not per year. To make estimates comparable, we converted all total
values to values per ha per year and presented them in 2017 constant
USD. For conversion to value per ha per year we divided the total values
per year of an ES in a forest zone by its total area. For conversion of the
values of timber, fuelwood and bamboo in village forests and TOF
presented in literature, we divided them with total area and number of
years in the extraction cycle.6 In our calculation, year of publication of
studies is used as the base unless year of the value is specifically
mentioned in the publication. All values in the paper are expressed in
2017 constant USD.
If i < 2017,
V2017 = Vi {(1 + IRi + 1 )(1 + IRi + 2) .(1 + IRi + n = 2017)} (1)
If i > 2017,
V2017 = Vi {(1 + IRi 1 )(1 + IRi 2) .(1 + IRi n = 2017 )}
1
(2)
TVi
Vi = if the total value of a forest area or ecosystem is available
AEt
(3)
tvi, oc
TVi = if the value is given in other currency than USD
ERi (4)
where
Vi = Original value (i.e. value in USD per ha per year of an ES in the
year i),
V2107 = Value per ha per year of an ES in 2017 constant USD,
i = The year of estimation or publication of the original ES value,
IR = USD inflation rate
TV = Total value of an ES in a forest area or ecosystem given in
USD,
A = Area of forest or ecosystem in ha,
Et = Length of collection/supply period in years (in case of total
5
To be consistent with all relevant literature assessed in this study (see, e.g.
Getzner and Islam, 2013), we defined livelihood as the income of collectors.
This implies that our definition applied to ES that were collected and actually
marketed, i.e. provisioning services. It should be noted here that considering
income for collectors ex ante excluded income for ES that are not collected (e.g.
carbon credits and entrance fee to a park) or income for beneficiaries different
from collectors (e.g. managers of a protected area). We did not find any study
that estimated income from ES that are not collected for Bangladesh though.
This further justifies the definition of livelihood we adapted this article.
6
We assumed an extraction cycle of 3 years for fuelwood and bamboo, and 20
years for timber. Jashimuddin and Inoue (2012) reported an extraction cycle of
up to 3 years for bamboo. The assumptions for fuelwood and timber are based
on the experience of the first author of the article whose family owns village
forests and TOF in Bangladesh. Information on extraction cycle of these two
products in village forests and TOF is not available in literature.
S.K. Barua, et al.
value per year, Et = 1),
tvi,oc = Total value of an ES in a forest or ecosystem given in a
currency other than USD and
ER = Exchange rate between USD and the currency in which an ES
value is given.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Studies on ES and their valuation
A total of 52 studies were identified that discussed the ES supplied
by different zones of forests in Bangladesh. Of them, 30 studies pro-
vided 67 value estimates for 19 ES (See Annex B). 18 studies (most of
them published since 2013) address the economic valuation of ES from
the Sundarbans, six for the village forests and TOF, four for the hill
forests, while just two for the coastal plantations in Bangladesh.7 There
is no ES valuation study available for sal forests (Annex B).
In terms of methodology used (see Annex B), more than half (i.e. 18)
of the valuation studies applied the market-value method, 13 of which
used primary data collected through surveys and the rest used sec-
ondary data (see, e.g. Masiero et al., 2019 for details on ES valuation
methods). 10 more studies applied value transfer methods. This means
that exactly half (i.e. 15) of all valuation studies available for Bangla-
desh actually used secondary data.8 This may have reduced the accu-
racy of estimated values to some extent. It can also be noted here that
the surveys conducted for ES valuation in many studies had narrow
geographical focus within individual forest zone. Thus, the economic
values estimated by them might not represent an entire forest zone.
As reported earlier, the Sundarbans was the most studied forest zone
in Bangladesh, while the sal forests was the least studied. This was
expected since the Sundarbans is the world’s largest continuous man-
grove forests, hosts rich biodiversity, provides coastal protection and
supports the livelihoods of millions of people. This forest zone is given
high importance in key policy documents of GoB. Being a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, the Sundarbans is also recognized internationally.
The national importance and international recognition have generated
high research interest about the Sundarbans on various aspects in-
cluding the ES. The sal forests, on the other hand, have increasingly
been losing national significance as only a small area is left with forest
cover9 (Rahman, 2016). With decreasing national significance, the re-
search interest about the sal forests also has remained low.
Overall, the coverage of ES in valuation studies has remained lim-
ited (Annex B). According to our review, the first study that estimated
the economic value of forest products in Bangladesh was published in
1984. Just three studies were published between 1984 and 2006 which
estimated six ES values in total. Since 2007, both the number of studies
and valuation estimations have increased (Fig. 2). They predominantly
included provisioning services, which are usually marketed. Studies
covering non-marketed services (i.e. regulation and maintenance, and
cultural) addressed storm protection, biodiversity conservation, re-
creation and tourism, and carbon sequestration. The number and esti-
mation echo the policy discussion and interest of development partners
concerning natural resources management in Bangladesh in general.
7
Many studies covered more than one forest zones and thus the total does not
match with the sum of studies on individual forest type.
8
Giving less focus on economic aspects of forestry, e.g. ES valuation in re-
search and policy making, is a reason for this. ES and their valuation, parti-
cularly in the Sundarbans, have started to receive attention in policy sphere in
the country only recently. As an outcome of this attention an ES Valuation
Manual (Masiero et al., 2019), the very first of its kind in Bangladesh, has re-
cently been prepared with the support of FAO.
9
It is estimated that only 15% of the sal forests has any significant tree cover
(BFD, 2016a).
4
Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069
4.2. Qualitative assessment of forest-based ES in Bangladesh
Annex C provides a summary framework of forest-based ES in
Bangladesh as reported in the literature we assessed for this article. The
specific ES reported by the literature as available in different forest
zones of the country are provided in the Supplementary Materials. We
have identified the ES of the major forest zones (Table 2) and qualita-
tively ranked them by level of importance, by forest zone. The most
important ES under all three CICES sections are discussed next.
4.2.1. Provisioning services
The most important provisioning services provided by the forests of
Bangladesh include products such as timber, fuelwood and biomass,
bamboo, fodder, medicinal plants, fruits and other food. They are im-
portant especially in the context of village forests and TOF. For ex-
ample, the wood and biomass for energy provided by this forest zone
are marked as highly important, while that provided by the sal forests
are of low importance (Table 2). By meeting 80% of the country’s de-
mand (Barua and Kumar, 2015), wood and biomass from the village
forests and TOF are vital for Bangladesh’s rural energy security and
national economy. On the other hand, contribution of the sal forests to
the country’s total fuelwood demand is negligible mostly because of its
ever-shrinking size and so are the scale and the national importance of
this service of the forest zone in question.
Among other provisioning services, the potable water provided by
hill forests, coastal plantations and the Sundarbans in the country is
also important (Table 2). Due to high elevation from the mean sea level,
installing deep tube well for accessing ground water is infeasible or
highly expensive for people living in the hill forest zone. On the other
hand, in the Sundarbans and other coastal areas of Bangladesh, ground
water is saline and thus not suitable for drinking. In all three forest
zones, rainwater does not provide year-round water supply as rainfall is
mainly concentrated in the monsoon months (May to September). Thus,
people living in these areas rely on surface water either coming from
forests or protected (from e.g. evaporation) by trees and forests.
The information on the supply of provisioning services by different
forest zone of Bangladesh is limited due to very limited research done
on this topic. Such information is available for just a few common
provisioning services. Barua and Kumar (2015) reported that the
country produces about 1.2 million m3 timber, about 70% of which
come from village forests and TOF. According to FAOSTAT (FAOSTAT,
2018), Bangladesh produces 26.5 million m3 of fuelwood, about four-
fifth of which comes from the forest zone mentioned above (Barua and
Kumar, 2015). BBS (2014) reported that the village forests and TOF
supply 105 million pieces of bamboo which satisfy more than 70% the
country’s demand.
4.2.2. Regulation and maintenance services
The most important regulation and maintenance services include
protection from sea storms and tidal surges, and land stabilization by
coastal plantations and the Sundarbans, as well as carbon sequestration,
biodiversity conservation, nutrient and watershed regulations and soil
erosion control by all forest zones (Table 2).
Only a handful of regulation and maintenance services10 receive
attention at the policy level. These most notably include protection
from sea storms and tidal surges by the Sundarbans and coastal plan-
tations. Because of Bangladesh’s geographic location, the calamities
mentioned above are common events which cause huge damages to life
and property in coastal area every year. Protection from them is a na-
tional interest.
Stabilization of newly accreted lands, e.g. through coastal
10
Many important regulation and maintenance services of the forests of
Bangladesh (e.g. carbon sequestration in village forests and TOF) are under-
investigated or under-considered in the literature and policy discussion.
S.K. Barua, et al.
Fig. 2. Studies on and estimates of ES values in Bangladesh.
plantations, is identified in the key policy documents of Bangladesh
(e.g. 7FYP) as an important ES of coastal plantations. Chow (2018)
reported a net accretion of land under coastal plantations in Bangla-
desh. It is estimated that several thousand ha of sediments are deposited
in coastal areas every year (GED, 2017). Hasan et al. (2013) estimated
that over 0.5 million ha of new land emerged in the coastal zone be-
tween 1972 and 2010. Stabilizing this land through tree plantations,
along with construction of polders and dams, to create agricultural land
is one of the important goals of the relevant policies of GoB (see, e.g.
GED, 2015). This stems from the fact that the country’s arable land is
shrinking every year because of erosion, salinity intrusion and man-
made causes such as rural settlement and urbanization (see, e.g. Hasan
et al., 2013).
4.2.3. Cultural services
Tourism, recreation, religious and education purposes are the most
important cultural services provided by the forests of Bangladesh
(Table 2). Tourism and recreation play a prominent role among the
cultural ES from the Sundarbans and the hill forests. Of the five forest
zones, statistics about the number of visitors are only tracked for the
Sundarbans (Fig. 3). There, visits are mostly made up of Bangladeshi
citizens. Visits declined during 2009–2010 and in 2014, possibly be-
cause of political uncertainty leading to nationwide unrest during these
periods. Generally, lack of adequate facilities is a reason for the rela-
tively small number of visitors in the Sundarbans and other forest zones
of the country.
The other important cultural services include the symbolic value of
the Royal Bengal Tiger11 of the Sundarbans (Table 2). The cultural
services provided by other forest zones in the country are far less re-
corded or researched.
4.3. Valuation of ES in Bangladesh
4.3.1. Economic values of ES in different forest zones
4.3.1.1. The Sundarbans. Among over 100 separate ES (recall Section
4.2, and Table 1 in Supplementary Materials) that the Bangladeshi part
of the Sundarbans provides, the economic value estimates are available
for only 15 of them in 19 valuation studies.12 Eight of these services are
provisioning, six fall under regulation and maintenance and one is
cultural (Table 3). Among the provisioning services the highest average
11
The tiger is considered the symbol of courage, and also used in the logo of
Bangladesh Cricket Board, the governing body of cricket, the country’s most
popular sports. In fact, the men’s and women’s cricket teams of Bangladesh are
called the Tigers and the Tigresses.
12
Studies on the Indian part to the Sundarbans also exist (e.g. Verma et al.,
2017).
5
Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069
value of USD 389 ha−1 yr−1 was reported for fish. This was the second
highest value reported in the literature assessed for this service in South
and Southeast Asia. Gunawardena and Rowan (2005) reported USD
451 ha−1 yr−1 for fish collected from natural mangroves in Southern
Sri Lanka. Verma et al. (2017) and Bann (2002) reported far lower
values for the Indian part of the Sundarbans (USD 99 ha−1 yr−1 on
average) and mangroves in Cambodia (USD 159 ha−1 yr−1),
respectively. The crab collected from the Sundarbans was also
reported to have substantial economic value (USD 102 ha−1 yr−1).
Among other provisioning services, timber and fuelwood were re-
ported to have average values of USD 33 ha−1 yr−1 and USD
0.5 ha−1 yr−1, respectively. Gunawardena and Rowan (2005) reported
a similar value for timber (USD 40 ha−1 yr−1) collected from natural
mangroves in Southern Sri Lanka. Likewise, a fuelwood value of below
USD 1 ha−1 yr−1 was reported for natural mangroves in Sri Lanka
(IUCN, 2003) and the Indian Sundarbans (Santhakumar et al., 2005).
The lower value of woody provisioning services of the Bangladeshi part
of the Sundarbans reflected the low extraction rate due to harvesting
moratorium that is in place there for a decade now. Even though market
price of timber and fuelwood is high, low extraction rates13 translate
into a low per hectare value.
Among the regulation and maintenance services, biodiversity con-
servation (i.e. gene pool conservation and nursery and habitat ser-
vices),14 was estimated to have a value of USD 813 ha−1 yr−1 (Table 3).
This value was much higher than that in the Indian part of Sundarbans
(USD 518 ha−1 yr−1). This difference most probably reflects the fact
that the Bangladeshi part is much more biodiverse than the Indian part
(see, e.g. Aziz and Paul, 2015). The lower level of water and soil salinity
probably is the major reason for this. The use of different economic
assessment methodologies or approaches in the literature assessed and
different management regimes in Bangladesh and the Indian parts of
the Sundarbans may also be the reasons. Apart from biodiversity, storm
and other coastal protection value of the Sundarbans was significant
with USD 528 ha−1 yr−1 (Table 2). With one devasting cyclone making
landfall to Bangladesh every year on average (Sarker et al., 2017), the
value estimated for the Sundarbans seems to be appropriate. Barbier
(2016) reported a coastal protection value equivalent to USD
1907 ha−1 yr−1 in 2017 constant price for Southern Thailand. Among
the cultural services, recreation and tourism were the only ones of the
13
Extraction rate is low partly because only legal extraction is considered in
the literature assessed. It can be stated here that the literature assessed in this
study mainly focused on the flow of a certain ES, i.e. the proportion of the total
supply of a certain ES that was actually delivered to (e.g. harvested by) bene-
ficiaries rather than the stock, i.e. total potential supply.
14
Carbon storage in the Sundarbans was reported to have an average value of
USD 1,720 ha−1. However, because of being stock value, it was excluded from
our total value calculation.
 S.K. Barua, et al.

Table 2
Important ES from different forest zones of Bangladesh.
Section Division Services [level of importance: * = low, ** = medium, *** = high]

Sundarbans Coastal Village & TOF Sal Hill

Provisioning Nutrition Honey, fish, shrimps, crabs &
potable water [**]
Materials Wax, thatching materials &
medicinal plants [*]
Energy Fuelwood & biomass [**]
Potable water [**]
Timber, medicinal plants, fodder &
thatching material [**]
Fuelwood & biomass [**]
Cultivated fruits, vegetables and spices Cultivated fruits, Potable water [***]
[**] vegetables and spices Cultivated & wild fruits,
[**] vegetables and spices [**]
Timber, bamboo, medicinal plants & Medicinal plants Timber, bamboo, medicinal
handicraft-making materials (e.g. cane, & ground water [**] plants, cane, gum &
murta & hogla) [***] Timber & bamboo [*] ground water [**]
Ground water & fodder [**]
Fuelwood & biomass [***] Fuelwood & biomass [*] Fuelwood & biomass [**]

6
Regulation and Mediation of waste, toxics and Nutrient cycling [*] Negligible Nutrient cycling [*] Nutrient cycling [*] Nutrient cycling [**]
maintenance other nuisances
Mediation of flows Protection from sea storms & Protection from sea storms & tidal Soil erosion control [*] Soil erosion control [*] Soil erosion control &
tidal surges [***] surges, & stabilization of newly watershed regulation [***]
Stabilization of newly accreted accreted land [***]
land & control of salinity Control of salinity intrusion [**]
intrusion [**]
Maintenance of physical, chemical Biodiversity conservation & Carbon sequestration [**] Carbon sequestration [***] Pollination & biodiversity Carbon sequestration,
and biological conditions carbon sequestration [***] Biodiversity conservation [*] Pollination & biodiversity conservation conservation [**] pollination & biodiversity
[**] Carbon sequestration [*] conservation [**]

Cultural Physical and intellectual
interaction with biota, ecosystem
and landscape
Spiritual, symbolic and other
interaction with biota, ecosystem
and landscape
Tourism, education & research,
cultural heritage value [**]
Symbolic value of tiger [***]
Wilderness [*]
Education & research [**] Education & research [**] Tourism [**] Tourism, education &
Tourism [*] Education & research [*] research [**]
Wilderness [*] Wilderness & bequest values [**] Wilderness [*] Wilderness [*]
Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069
S.K. Barua, et al.
Fig. 3. Number of visitors in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh. Source: Sarker et al. (2017), and Golub and Golub (2016).
Sundarbans for which an estimate of economic value was available
(USD 293 ha−1 yr−1).
When all available ES values were summed up, the total value of the
Bangladeshi Sundarbans amounted to USD 2,176 ha−1 yr−1 (Table 3
and Fig. 4).15 This was about two times the total economic values (TEV)
of USD 964 ha−1 yr−1 and USD 1192 ha−1 yr−1 reported for this forest
by Costanza et al. (1997) and IUCN (2014), respectively. This difference
might stem from the fact that two above mentioned studies accounted
for less number of ES than what we have accounted for.
4.3.1.2. Coastal plantation. Economic value estimate of only two ES, i.e.
fuelwood and timber of coastal plantations of Bangladesh was
available. The value of fuelwood was reported to be USD
57 ha−1 yr−1 (Table 3). This value was much higher than that in the
Sundarbans (USD 0.5 ha−1 yr−1). This big difference was most
probably due to higher extraction rate per ha which itself was driven
by lower restriction imposed on collecting fuelwood from these
plantations. In fact, some coastal plantations are managed under
social forestry (SF) in which beneficiaries are fully entitled to collect
fuelwood and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). This lower
restriction on collection drives up the number of collectors, total
collection and thus economic value of fuelwood per ha. It can be
noted here that, the fuelwood value reported for the coastal plantations
was just one-fifteenth of the value (USD 447 ha−1 yr−1) found for
fuelwood collected from mangrove plantation in Southeastern Sri Lanka
(IUCN, 2007). The value of timber, which was estimated only by Islam
et al. (2012), was USD 102 ha−1 yr−1. Surprisingly, we could not
identify any study assessing the regulation and maintenance value of
coastal plantations, even if these are the primary reasons coastal
plantations are established.
4.3.1.3. Hill forests. Only the economic values of three ES (i.e. carbon
sequestration, biodiversity, and recreation and tourism) of the hill
forests were available in three studies (Barua and Haque, 2013; Kawsar
et al., 2015; Rasul, 2009). The average values of the first two were
much lower than those of the Sundarbans (Table 3). This probably was
due to the fact that the hill forests are heavily degraded owing to heavy
population pressure and raid economic development of the country
(Chowdhury et al., 2016). Encroachment and illegal logging are
common (Barua et al., 2018), which all contribute to severe forest
degradation and deforestation. This lowers forest carbon sequestration
rate and fragments habitats for biodiversity which themselves
15
This total value does not consider potential trade-off among ES, i.e.
availability one services may affect that of the others. The total value might be
different in case such trade-offs were considered.
7
Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069
contribute to lower economic value for carbon sequestration and
biodiversity conservation.
This easier access probably has an effect on the economic value of
recreation and tourisms in the hill forests. The value was estimated to
be USD 583 ha−1 yr−1 (Kawsar et al., 2015) which was twice as much
of economic value of the same service of the Sundarbans (Table 3). This
difference can be explained as follows. Hill forests cover a large area in
the Southeasten Chittagong and Northeastern Sylhet regions (see Fig. 1)
and are easily accessible by road in most parts. Conversely, the Sun-
darbans can only be accessed by waterways. Also, there are well es-
tablished lodging and dining facilities for the visitors in the vicinity of
or even inside the forests, which help attract tourists from all parts of
the country. The establishment of a number of national and eco-parks
and other nature-based recreational areas in these forests also helps in
this regard. Better facilities and easier access, compared with other
forest zones, help recreation and tourism in the hill forests of Bangla-
desh. However, they may also contribute to unsustainable extractive
uses leading to forest degradation and deforestation resulting in re-
duced supply and value of other ES.
4.3.1.4. Village forests and TOF. For the village forests and TOF, the
value estimates of five services were available and all of them were of
provisioning services. The value of fuelwood (USD 54 ha−1 yr−1) is
much higher than those from any other forest zones in Bangladesh
(Table 3). The value of timber (USD 22 ha−1 yr−1) is also substantial
compared with the Sundarbans. This certainly has to do with better
access to the services of village forests and TOF as they are privately
owned or managed under the social forestry. These forests supply
nearly 80% of the total demand of these two products (Barua and
Kumar, 2015), that indicates a very high yield rate per ha. This drives
the economic value of timber and fuelwood up.
4.3.1.5. Overall situation. Based on estimates available in the literature
assessed, the average ES value of all five forest zones of Bangladesh was
estimated to be USD 840 ha−1 yr−1. With an aggregate value of USD
2176 ha−1 yr−1 based on available estimates, the Sundarbans worth
more than any other forest zones in Bangladesh. The hill forests ranked
the second with USD 1066 ha−1 yr−1. The average ES values of village
forests and TOF, and coastal plantations were much less than the earlier
two (Table 3 and Fig. 4), most probably because of the availability of a
few ES values estimated for this zone.
Although the available value estimates concern a fraction of the
diverse ES provided by the forests of Bangladesh (see Supplementary
Materials), they convey an important message: forests of Bangladesh
have high economic values. Multiplying the average ES value per ha of
each forest zone with its area and then summing them up gave a total
value of USD 2.94 billion yr−1, which was equivalent to 1.2% of
S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

Table 3 estimated ES values between typically marketed and non-marketed

Estimated values for ES of different forest zones of Bangladesh.* services provides an interesting insight. For the Sundarbans, 73% of
ES Average Value (range ± ) in USD ha−1 yr−1 (in 2017 estimated ES values was constituted by non-marketed (i.e. regulation
constant price) and maintenance, and cultural services), and for the hill forests the
proportion was 100%. The above apparently suggests that the non-
Sundarbans Coastal Hill Village & marketed services from these two forest zones are considered to be of
TOF
the higher importance than the marketed ones by the scientific com-
Provisioning munity. Ignoring them in the policy processes might give undesirable
Fish 389 NA NA NA policy outcome regarding natural resources management in the
(75–956) country. It can be noted here that the figures mentioned above were
Crab 102 NA NA NA
consistent with Verma et al. (2017) who reported high proportions of
Timber 33 102 NA 22
(1–72) non-marketed services in the combined total values of services provided
Thatching materials 17 NA NA NA by the Indian parts of the Sundarbans.
(0.1–34) For the village forests and TOF the exact opposite of the hill forests
Honey 29 NA NA NA
held true: 100% of the available total value estimates was for provi-
(5–52)
Fuelwood 0.5 57 NA 54 sioning services which can be traded in the market. This matches with
(0.1–1) (30–83) (2–106) the widespread perception in the general public and policy sphere
Vegetables NA NA NA 106 about the village forests and TOF that the only important services
Fruits NA NA NA 230 provided by them are the provisioning services (particularly timber,
Bamboo NA NA NA 53
bamboo, and fuelwood). Thus, regulation and maintenance, and cul-
Fodder 25 NA NA NA
Other non-wood NTFPs 1 NA NA NA tural services of these forests are largely ignored in the policy sphere of
Bangladesh and scientific literature. However, our findings suggest that
Average value of 596 159 0 465
provisioning about 56% of the total value estimated for all forest zone in the country
services was associated with non-marketed regulation and cultural services
(Table 3). This proportion would have been higher if any value estimate
Regulation and maintenance for such services from village forests and TOF was available. The pro-
Avoided storm damage 284 NA NA NA
(13–720)
portion we estimated was similar to what was found in most global-
Other coastal protection 244 NA NA NA level studies: non-marketed ESs constitute a majority share of the total
Carbon sequestration 2 NA 251 NA economic value estimated (de Groot et al., 2012).
(153–370) The provisioning services provided by forests in Bangladesh play an
Soil erosion control 2 NA NA NA
important role in the livelihoods of many rural households and com-
Biodiversity conservation 813¥ NA 231 NA
(627–999) (185–278) munities that live in some of the poorest and most isolated places in the
Gene pool conservation 618 NA 0 NA country (Table 4). For example, in the Sundarbans, crab collectors earn
Nursery and habitat 195 NA 0 NA an USD 660 per year while honey collectors earn USD 261 per year on
services (9–381) average. These estimates are net of entrance fees paid to the Bangladesh
Average value of 1,345 30 483 0 Forest Department and of illegal payments to bandits that collectors
regulation and often have to pay to guarantee their safe passage. Table 4 provides a
maintenance services
summary of the income earned by collectors of selected forest products,
Cultural from different forest zones.
Recreation and tourism 235 NA 583 NA
(2–1050)
4.4. Gap analysis
Average value of 235 0 583 0
cultural services
We compare here the qualitative findings summarized in Table 2
Forest zone Average 2,176 159 1,066 465 with those of valuation studies, highlighting a few observations. First,
Share of non-market 73% 0% 100% 0% based on the findings of the literature review, no ES was reported for
value in each forest any forest zone in the country under nine out of 48 classes of the CICES
zone
methodology V5.1 (see Annex C), even if some of them are crucial for
Share of non-market 56%
value in all forest the health and wellbeing of people, or for the national economy. For
zones example, hill forests are the source of potable water for millions of
people in Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts (see also Table 2).
Source: Authors’ calculation based on estimates from literature, *No estimate However, no valuation study was identified. The estimates from other
was available for sal forests; ± When multiple values were available; NA = not countries suggest that potable water is indeed a valuable ES. Notably,
available; ¥Summation of the values of gene pool conservation, and nursery and
Nunez et al. (2006) estimated that the value of drinking water provided
protection services.
by the Valdivian Rainforest Ecoregion in Chile ranged from USD 61 to
USD 162 ha−1 yr−1. Costanza et al. (2006) estimated the value for the
Bangladesh’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017.16 The
forests in New Jersey, USA to be between from USD 4 to USD
provisioning and regulation and maintenance services constituted 0.5%
66 ha−1 yr−1. de Groot et al. (2012) reported an average value of water
each, and the rest 0.2% by the cultural services.17
provided by tropical forests of USD 27 ha−1 yr−1.
Apart from the GDP equivalence, the analysis of the distribution of
Another significant gap was identified for the damage avoidance
from sea storms and tidal surges, and the stabilization of newly accreted
16 land by coastal plantations. These services are hugely important for the
Bangladesh’s nominal GDP in 2017 was USD 249.7 billion (World Bank,
2018). survival and livelihood of people in coastal areas and the economy of
17
One has to bear in mind that this total value was calculated based only on Bangladesh. The GoB has invested significant resources to establish
the estimates available in the literature surveyed, not on the economic value of plantations along the coastline of the country for several decades now.
all ES supplied by the forests of Bangladesh. Thus, the value we estimated is This suggests that the value of damage avoided by coastal plantations
lower than the total value of forest-based ES in the country should have been. may be substantial. Indeed, Das and Vincent (2009) estimated that the

8
S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

Fig. 4. Overall economic value* of different CICES sections of forest-based ES in Bangladesh. Source: Authors’ calculation based on values from literature; * in 2017
constant price.

Table 4 regulation and maintenance and cultural services).

Livelihood values of forest-based ES in Bangladesh. Similar to the above, estimates of economic values of just 19 out of
ES Average livelihood value (range ± ) in USD collector−1
over 100 individual forest-based ES in Bangladesh were available in the
yr−1 (in 2017 constant price) literature. Most of these estimates were for the provisioning services
such as timber, fuelwood and food. Estimates of regulation, main-
Sundarbans Coastal Hill Village and tenance, and cultural services were limited. The former result is prob-
TOF
ably due to the fact that the provisioning ES are usually traded in the
Fuelwood 25 0 0 48 market and thus easier to estimate. The latter one can be explained by
Fish 587 NA NA NA the fact that the regulation, maintenance and cultural services are not
(410–907) traded in the market, and require time, resource, and specialized
Crab 660 NA NA NA
knowledge to value them.
(64–1407)
Thatching materials 726 NA NA NA Overall, the ES research in Bangladesh has focused more on the
(382–1069) quantification of impacts than on the economic valuation. Most va-
Honey 261 NA NA NA luation studies relied on the value-transfer method and used secondary
(31–509) data. This is consistent with the findings of Costanza et al. (2017).
Other non-wood NTFPs 0 0 0 51
Existing valuation studies that used primary data from surveys mostly
When collectors collect 602 NA 80 45
whatever products, (134–951) (22–66) had a narrow geographical focus. Thus, the estimated values may not
they get fully represent the different forest zones of the country. On a positive
note though, the findings of this article suggest that with increased
±
Source: Authors’ calculation based on estimates from literature, For which recognition for ES and their valuation at the policy level, the research
multiple values are available.
interest on and funding for them are also increasing.
This article showed that the most studies on the ES and their va-
coastal plantations in Orissa state of India helped save 0.0148 lives per luation were done for the Sundarbans, whereas there was the least
hectare from cyclone (i.e. roughly 68 ha of plantations save one life) amount of research on ES and none on valuation for the sal forests. The
and the economic value was USD 248,93618 per life saved. This means Sundarbans, being world’s largest mangrove forests in a single tract
the cyclone protection value of coastal plantations in Orissa was USD with its rich biodiversity, high coastal protection value and support to
3684 ha−1 cyclone−1. Yet, we identified no valuation study for this the livelihoods of millions of people, possesses values of high national
important service. and global significance. This has helped generating high research in-
Another identified gap is in the availability of ES estimates over terest about this forest zone. Moreover, more projects and activities
time. Of the studies identified, all but two were cross-sectional: Hossain focused on the Sundarbans than other forest zones of Bangladesh. On
et al. (2016a,b) and IUCN (2014). The rest just focused on one point of the other hand, with their small land area which has been shrinking
time. We conclude that a significant gap exists in forest-based ES va- continuously, the sal forests have lost significance at the national par-
luation research in Bangladesh, which may lead to inappropriately in- ticularly in terms of economic contribution and thus the research in-
formed policy decisions. terest about this forest zone becomes low. This is counter intuitive as
more research accompanied by effective policy actions are exactly what
5. Conclusion and implications for policies and research are needed to save the forests in this zone from disappearing.
Overall, the findings of this article suggest that there is a need for
The findings of the article suggest that research on forest-based ES more systematic research to address the huge knowledge gap regarding
in Bangladesh, although increasing in recent years, is still insufficient. forest-based ES and their valuation in Bangladesh. The research focus,
The existing literature reported ES under more than a third of CICES which is currently disproportionately high on the Sundarbans, should
classes for all forest zones of the country. These mostly included the be made more balanced among the forest zones. Giving priority in re-
marketed services that the people could easily associate with the forests search on measuring the supply and demand over time and valuing the
and trees (e.g. many provisioning services) as well as some of non- important services, as identified across all forest zones in this study
marketed services that people might not relate easily (mostly the could help bring this balance. This balanced approach of research
would help in evolving better informed policies and realizing optimal
18
benefits from and ensure sustainable management of the forests across
Converted from the original estimate in Indian Rupees of 11.7 million using
Bangladesh. For instance, knowing the economic values of the
2009 exchange rate of 1 USD = 47 Indian Rupees.

9
S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

important ES provided by the sal forests and putting them in the context
of the country’s GDP could be a strong argument to convince the policy
makers to take more effective measures to reverse its shrinking trends,
instead of allocating the forestland to other uses. Likewise, knowing the
value of potable water collected from surface ponds by local people in
the coastal areas of Bangladesh would also help estimate the economic
impacts of and better design projects for supplying safer driving water,
e.g. on rainwater harvesting. Expanding the horizon of financial ana-
lyses to include economic dimensions (such as the consideration of ES)
is also becoming a requirement of important funding sources like the
Green Climate Fund. Market-based instruments such as Payment for ES
(Wunder, 2005) can also provide additional funding to support ES
provision and natural resource conservation (see e.g. Razzaque, 2017).
Hence, valuation information is becoming more important in the de-
velopment of projects and programmes.
Awareness raising among the policy makers, researchers and gen-
eral public would help bring more attention to and funding for ES and
ES valuation research from both national and international sources.
Capacity building, i.e. providing training courses on ES valuation to the
decision makers, high-level government officials involved in the de-
velopment, assessment and evaluation of projects and researchers
would be crucial. A valuation database of the most important ES from
each forest zone in Bangladesh could be created and regularly updated.
This would help the policy makers, planners, and project developers to
conduct assessments or evaluations easily and thus make decisions
quickly.
value estimates. Further research is needed for estimating the total
economic value of all forest-based ES in Bangladesh. Second, the as-
sessed literature was written in different time periods, used various
methods, applied varying interest rates, and focused on specific geo-
graphical areas within one or more forest zones. Consequently, wide
ranging values for the same ES even in the same forest zone were es-
timated, which made it difficult to examine the uncertainties of the
individual values estimated by the assessed literature. This is another
area which deserve further attention from research community. Finally,
more than half of all valuation studies assessed in this article used
secondary data for ES value estimation. Any inaccuracies, incon-
sistencies or flaws in that data could have been transferred to the cor-
responding ES value estimates reducing their accuracies. This calls for
carrying out more research on various aspects ES valuation in
Bangladesh using primary data on the other hand.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in publishing
this article.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.

6. Limitations and areas of potential future research Acknowledgements

This article has encountered a number of limitations each of which
constitutes a potential area for the future research. First, our findings,
conclusions and recommendations are based on the review of literature
that we gathered through a comprehensive process of search and fil-
tering in four scientific databases. The literature assessed presents the
value estimates for a relatively small selection among a large number of
ES that the forests of Bangladesh can supply. The average and total ES
values presented in this article were calculated based on the available
The authors would like to cordially thank the anonymous reviewers,
the editor and the associate editor for their insightful comments and
suggestions. The first draft of the article was prepared when the first
author (Sepul Kanti Barua) was still working at the Food and
Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO). The views
presented in this article are entirely of the authors, not of the organi-
zations they are and were affiliated to. Any remaining errors in the
article are entirely of the authors.

Appendix A Search and filtering procedure

Below the search and filtering procedure is explained step by step first for the Scopus, and then for the other three databases.
Step 1: We searched Scopus with the terms ‘Ecosystem services’ and ‘Bangladesh’ and included title, abstract and key words in the search. More
than 100 studies were found.
Step 2: Since our study focused on forests, we searched within the studies found in Step 1 with the term ‘forests’. The number of studies reduced to
below 100 this time.
Step 3: In this step, we meticulously read the abstracts of all studies found in Step 2, and selected only those ones that apparently analysed or
discussed ES in different forest zones of Bangladesh. This brought down the number of studies further.
Step 4: We read through all studies selected in Step 3 in full and selected those ones that indeed analysed or discussed ES in different forest zones
of Bangladesh. These were identified as the relevant studies to be reviewed for the thorough ES assessment. Within these selected studies, we
identified by thorough reading the ones that estimated the economic values of forest-based ES in Bangladesh.
Step 5: In order to double check that all forest-based ES valuation studies were indeed identified in Step 4, we searched with the studies found in Step
2 using the term ‘valuation’ and ‘value’. This process returned with slightly higher number of studies than what was identified in Step 4. We went
through the additional studies in order to make sure that no valuation studies were excluded. No new valuation studies were identified in this step.
Step 6: The selected studies on ES and their economic valuation (Step 4) individually covered one or more of the forest zones. Nevertheless, in
order to ensure that no relevant studies for individual forest zone were excluded, we searched the studies found in Step 1 with forest zone specific
terms one by one. For example, we used the terms ‘hill’ and ‘hill forests’ for the hill forest, and ‘village forests’, ‘trees outside forests’, ‘social forests’,
‘roadside plantations’, homestate forests’, ‘homegardens’ for village forests and TOF. Less than 10 studies were found for each forest zone. These
included the ones we already found in Step 4 plus few additional ones for each forest zone. We read through the additional ones, none of which
discussed ES or estimated their value, meaning no new studies were added in this step.
To identify the old literature that was published before the term ‘ecosystem services’ became popular or that did not use term at all, but was still
relevant to this study, we did another search in Scopus. We started by searching with the terms that describe the common forest products, i.e.
‘timber’, or ‘fuelwood’, or ‘fish’ or ‘non-timber forest products’ AND ‘Bangladesh’, and included title, abstract and key words in the search. Then we
followed the steps 2–5 as described above. A few additional studies were found.
We followed the same procedure described above for CABI Direct and CABI Forest Science Database, and were able to identify a few additional
studies on ES and their economic valuation in Bangladesh which did not appear in Scopus search. These additional studies were added for the
thorough review.

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S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

Finally, we carried out the Google Scholar search by using the keys ‘Ecosystem services AND forests AND Bangladesh’ and ‘Ecosystem services
AND forests AND Valuation AND Bangladesh’. We ticked on to ‘anywhere in the article’. We sorted the initial search by using ‘sort by relevance’ and
considered the results appearing in the first five pages. Through numerous searches in Google Scholar over the years, we observed that the relevant
documents usually appear in the first three pages. Thus, searching the first five pages ensured that no relevant studies were ignored. No additional
studies to Scopus and CABI searches were found from Google Scholar search.

Appendix B Meta-data on studies on economic valuation of forest-based ES in Bangladesh

Study Services (estimation unit) Method used Forest zone

Mehvar et al. (20- Timber, fuelwood and recreation (value/ha/yr) Travel cost method, & market value method based on The
19) survey Sundarbans
Kibria et al. (2018) Livelihood values of honey, crabs, fish (mixed fish, shrimp, shrimp fry) and fuelwood Market-value method The
(income/collector/yr) Sundarbans
Rahman et al. (20- Fish, fuelwood, honey, fodder, storm protection, soil erosion control, habitat Market-value and choice experiment method based on The
18) protection for fish (value/ha/yr) survey data Sundarbans
Sarker et al. (201- Cultural services; coastal protection & livelihood value of common provisioning Zonal travel cost method, damage cost avoided method The
7) services (total value/yr, value/ha/yr) & market value method based on survey Sundarbans
BFD (2016a) Carbon sequestration (total value/yr) Value transfer method The
Sundarbans
Golub and Golub Gene pool conservation, nursery services, recreation (value/ha/yr) Value-transfer method The
(2016) Sundarbans
Bashar (2015) Recreation (total value/yr) Zonal travel cost method The
Sundarbans
IUCN (2014) Avoided storm damage, total economic value (value/collector/yr) Value-transfer method The
Sundarbans
Uddin et al. (201- Livelihood value of fish (income/collector/yr); timber, thatching materials, other Value-transfer method The
3a) nonwood NTFPs, fuelwood, recreation (total value/yr) Sundarbans
Uddin et al. (201- Crabs (value/collector/yr); Fish (total value/yr) Value-transfer method The
3b) Sundarbans
Uddin et al. (201- Livelihood value of common non-timber provisioning services (total income/house- Value-transfer method The
3c) hold/yr) Sundarbans
Winrock Internati- Avoided storm damage, tourism (total value/yr) Value transfer method The
onal (2013) Sundarbans
Getzner and Islam Livelihood values of fish, honey, crab and thatching material (income/collector/yr) Market-value method based on survey data The
(2013) Sundarbans
Islam and Islam (- Livelihood value of common non-timber provisioning services (total income/ Market-value method based on survey data The
2011) collector/yr) Sundarbans
Islam (2010a) Livelihood value of fish, timber & thatching materials, (income/collector/yr); crabs, Value-transfer method The
honey (income/collector/yr and total value/yr) Sundarbans
Costanza et al. (1- Total economic value (value/ha/yr) Value transfer method The
997) Sundarbans
Mitchell (1995) Timber, fish, fuelwood and other nonwood NTFPs (value/ha/yr) Market-value method based on survey data The
Sundarbans
Ahmad (1984) Common provisioning services (value/ha/yr) Value transfer method The
Sundarbans,
Chow (2015) Fuelwood (value/ha/yr) Market-value method Coastal forest
Islam et al. (2012) Fuelwood and timber (value/ha/extraction cycle) Market-value method Coastal forests
Barua and Haque Carbon sequestration (total value/yr) Market-value method Hill forests
(2013)
Kawsar et al. (20- Recreation (total value/yr) Travel-cost method Hill forests
15)
Miah et al. (2012) Livelihood value of common provisioning services (income/household/yr) Market-value method based on survey data Hill forests
Rasul (2009) Biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration (value/ha/yr) Market value method Hill forests
BBS (2014) Timber, bamboo, fuelwood (total value/extraction cycle) Market value method based on survey data Village forests
and TOF
Muhammed et al. Fuelwood (total value/extraction cycle); Livelihood value of fuelwood (income/ Market-value method based on survey data Village forests
(2011) participant/yr) and TOF
Kibria and Anik (- Livelihood value of common provisioning services (income/household/yr) Market-value method based on survey data Village forests
2010) and TOF
Jahan et al. (2008) Vegetables, fruits (value/ha/yr) Market value method based on survey data Village forests
and TOF
Masum et al. (20- Livelihood value of common provisioning services (income/household/yr) Market-value method based on survey data Village forests
08) and TOF
Ahmed et al. (20- Livelihood value of NTFP (patipata) (income/household/yr) Market-value method based on survey data Village forests
07) and TOF

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S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

Appendix C Forest-based ES in Bangladesh, classified according to CICES

Section Division Group Class Forest zones where services

are available

Provisioning Nutrition Biomass Cultivated crops Village and TOF, sal, hill
Reared animals and their products Village and TOF, sal, hill
Wild plants, algae and their outputs Sal, hill, coastal and the
Sundarbans
Wild animals and their products Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Plants and algae from in-situ aquaculture None
Animal from in-situ aquaculture Sal, the Sundarbans
Water Surface water for drinking Hill
Ground water for drinking Hill, Village and TOF
Materials Biomass Fibres and other materials from plants, algae and Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
animals for direct use or processing coastal and the Sundarbans
Materials from plants, algae and animals for agri- Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
cultural use coastal and the Sundarbans
Genetic materials from all biota Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Water Surface water for non-drinking Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Ground water for non-drinking Sal, hill, Village and TOF
and coastal
Energy Biomass energy Plant-based resources Sal, hill, Village and TOF
and the Sundarbans
Animal-based resources Sal, hill, Village and TOF
and the Sundarbans
Mechanical energy Animal-based energy Sal, hill and Village and
TOF

Regulation and Mediation of waste, toxics and other nui- Mediation by biota
maintenance sances
Mediation by ecosystems
Mediation of flows Mass flows
Liquid flows
Gaseous / air flows
Maintenance of physical, chemical and Lifecycle maintenance, habitat
biological conditions and gene pool protection
Pest and disease control
Soil formation and composition Weathering process
Water conditions
Atmospheric composition and
climate regulation
Bio-remediation by micro-organisms, algae, plants Sal, hill, Village and TOF
and animals and coastal
Filtration/sequestration/storage/accumulation by Sal, hill, Village and TOF
micro-organisms, algae, plants and animals and coastal
Filtration/sequestration/storage/accumulation by eco- None
systems
Dilution by atmosphere, freshwater and marine eco- None
systems
Mediation of smell/noise/visual impacts None
Mass stabilisation Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Buffering and attenuation of mass flows Sal, hill, coastal and the
Sundarbans
Hydrological cycle and water flow maintenance Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Flood protection Hill, coastal and the
Sundarbans
Storm protection Coastal and the Sundarbans
Ventilation and transpiration None
Pollination and seed dispersal Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Maintaining nursery population and habitats Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Pest control None
Disease control None
Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Decomposition and fixing process Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Chemical condition of freshwater None
Chemical condition of salt waters None
Global climate regulation by reduction of GHG Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
concentration coastal and the Sundarbans
Micro and regional climate regulations Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans

12
S.K. Barua, et al. Ecosystem Services 42 (2020) 101069

Cultural Physical and intellectual interaction with
biota, ecosystem and landscape
Spiritual, symbolic and other interaction
with biota, ecosystem and landscape
Physical and experimental in-
teraction
Intellectual and representative
interaction
Spiritual and emblematic
Other Cultural
In-situ experimental use of plants, animals and Hill and the Sundarbans
landscape
In-situ physical use of landscape Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Scientific Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Education Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Heritage, cultural Hill and the Sundarbans
Entertainment Sal, coastal, hill and the
Sundarbans
Aesthetic Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Symbolic The Sundarbans
Sacred and religious Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Existence Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans
Bequest Sal, hill, Village and TOF,
coastal and the Sundarbans

Appendix D. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101069.

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