Valoración económica del servicio de provisión hídrico de la microcuenca del río Leytopamba, cantón Patate.

Abstract

The main objective of this work was to economically value the water supply service of the Leytopamba river micro-watershed, Patate canton; determining as a result that this micro-watershed has a biophysical characterization of high montane evergreen forest, herbaceous and humid moorland, temperature ranging from 9 to 25 ° C, precipitation: 500 mm, belonging to the sub-basin of the Patate river and the Pastaza basin, in the socio-economic part it was determined 65% have a primary education level, the main economic activity is agriculture with 87% mainly to the corn cultivation. To determine the economic value, the Barrantes and Castro Methodology was used to determine the opportunity cost, which resulted in USD 2250/ha/year; calculation made by the difference between total income and production costs of corn cultivation, the area of water interest was 816 belonging to the Leytopamba river micro-watershed; the importance of the vegetation cover was 90% and the volume of water available was 15,768,000 m3/year. 768,000 m3/year, with this data was concluded the Leytopamba river micro-watershed has an economic value of USD 0.27/m3, the willingness to pay of 2 dollars per month if this charge were made would generate a value of USD 20. 400 per year, in order to propose a sustainable conservation plan it is established to implement the proposal of Payment for the environmental water service of the Leytopamba river micro-watershed of the Patate canton and the articulation to the environmental conservation strategy Fondo de Paramos y Lucha contra la Pobreza de Tungurahua, it is recommended to follow up on the proposal and encourage economic valuation studies in other micro-watersheds of the Patate canton.