Valuation of Ecosystem Goods and Services from forests in India

An attempt has been made in this paper to estimate the economic value of the goods and services provided by the forests of the country. The total economic value has been estimated at 6.96 lakh crore annually, which is approximately 6.86% of the GDP and represents the bare minimum approximate values of goods and services generated by forests. Valuation of certain services such as waste treatment, biodiversity, cultural and traditional values of trees and forests could not be assessed due to lack of proper methodologies; therefore the total value may be even higher than what has been projected in this paper.