Living Waterthe economic values of the world's Wetlands

Abstract

Wetlands are ecosystems that provide numerous goods and services that have an economic value, not only to the locakl population living in its periphery but also to communities living outside the wetland area. they are important source for food, fresh water and buiilding materials and provide valuable services such as water treatment and erosion control. the estimates in this paper show, for example, that unvegetated sediment wetlands like the Butch Wadden Sea and the Rufiji Delta in tanzania have the highest median economic values of all wetlands types at $364 per hectarea per year.