The economic value of ecosystem services from delisting impairments: A case study of Lake St. Joseph, Louisiana

Naveen Adusumilli, James Hendrix, Ernest Girouard and Josh Carpenter

No 252681, 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama from Southern Agricultural Economics Association

Abstract: Runoff from agricultural fields in Lake St. Joseph watershed caused sediment inflow into the lake resulting in the lake not meeting one of its designated uses, propagation of fish and wildlife. As a result, the lake was added to the state's year 2002 list of impaired waters for turbidity. Conservation agencies worked with local farmers to promote the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to decrease sediment runoff from crop fields within the watershed. In 2016, it was proposed that Lake St. Joseph be removed from the list of impaired waters. Such delisting is believed to provide a variety of benefits to people, often referred as ecosystem services. We measured the value of the ecosystem services provided by recreational activities, mainly fishing, using a meta-analysis based function transfer approach. The preliminary results show significant benefit in terms of fishing as a result of an increase in fish populations. Although ecosystem services are not exactly bought and sold in the market, their contribution to the local economy is significant, especially in Louisiana.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 7
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:saea17:252681

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.252681

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