Effects of Global Household Proliferation on Ecosystem Services - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 110

household level. For example, China's grassland ecocompensation program dis-
tributes 500 yuan (US $1 = 6.35 yuan as of July 2012) to each household
regardless of household size (General Office of the State Council of the People's
Republic of China 2010 ). As there are 2 million households, the total amount of
funding needed for all the households is one billion yuan. Thus, the more
households, the higher the total amount of payment is needed when the amount of
payment for each household is fixed. On the other hand, if the total amount of
funding in the program is fixed, each household would receive a smaller amount
when there are more households.
More households also can generate a higher amount of funds if they are willing
to pay for ecosystem services. For example, Loomis et al. ( 2000 ) found that a
sampled household would be willing to pay an average of $252 annually (through
a higher water bill) to restore five ecosystem services (dilution of wastewater,
natural purification of water, erosion control, recreation, and habitat for fish and
wildlife) along a 72 km section of the Platte River in the State of Colorado, USA.
Extrapolating the result of the sampled 96 households to all households (281,531)
living along the river may reach $71 million. However, if a quarter of the
households are willing to pay, only $18 million can be collected.
6.4 Research Directions and Management
of Ecosystem Services
Household proliferation has been rarely considered in ecosystem services research
and management (e.g., valuation) although it may play key roles in ecosystem
services and sustainability (Table 6.1 ). As illustrated above, household dynamics
are different from population dynamics because household numbers can increase
even though population sizes are stable or even decline. Many questions must be
addressed, for example, How do we meet household demands for ecosystem
services? How do we reduce household impacts on ecosystem services? How do
we determine the most appropriate amounts of payments for ecosystem services in
the context of household proliferation? How do households enhance ecosystem
services and improve efficiency in using ecosystem services?
New research directions are needed to address questions such as those raised
above and test hypotheses such as those listed in Table 6.1 . The solutions may
include (1) changes in the conceptual frameworks of valuing ecosystem services
from static to dynamic processes by incorporating household demand and impacts,
(2) changes in research approaches from population-focused to households-
focused, and (3) changes from discourse within the ecological and economic
communities in valuing ecosystem services to collaborating with researchers in
other disciplines (e.g., demography). By collaborating with action-oriented
stakeholders and households, the ecological community will be in a stronger
position to turn discoveries into actionable knowledge for sustainability of eco-
system services.