Assessment of ecosystem services values in response to land use/land cover change in tropical forest

Abstract Forest ecosystem services are significant to the living organisms of the earth; however monetary evaluation of forest ecosystem services is essential for monitoring and management of ecosystems. Therefore the estimation of ecosystem service value (ESV) is a very decisive tool for evaluating the ecosystem services change by the change of land use/land cover (LULC). The study has been carried out at Nayagram block in Jhargram district. We used multitemporal Landsat imagery from 1972 to 2019 for LULC classification. Results showed forest cover rapidly decreased between 1972 and 2019 by 21.6% and 10.75%, respectively. The maximum loss of forest cover is observed between 2002 and 2012, that is, 5.08% because of increasing antisocial activities. The maximum change is observed for grassland/scrub (22.96%) between 1972 and 2019. This result seen may be due to increase of deforestation and built-up area. Fallow land showed a continual decrease, from 32.32% in 1972 to 20.45% in 2019. The total ESV is calculated as US$23.27, 24.15, 22.84, 27.35, 23.08, and 21.39 million in 1972, 1987, 1992, 2002, 2012, and 2019, respectively. The ESV value of the forest is significantly reduced by 50.44% (1972–2019). We recommend that present study provide the information about ecosystem service for the forest-based livelihood and help for policy-making process in future.