Economic Evaluation Of Fungal Resources As Part Of Regional Natural Resource Potential

Economic valuation of direct use

The cost of direct use of fungal resources is determined by the availability of exploited or potentially exploited species. The economic value of fungi is determined by the possibility of consumption of their fruit bodies. The number of species of fungi with edible fruit bodies is large enough, but not all species are gathered by population. So, about 30% of the total number of species of basidiomycetes noted on the territory of the Orenburg region, are edible, but only 40% of them are collected by the population. Also, many fungi are cultivated or can be introduced into the culture.

Many species of fungi have potential economic value. These are species that are not used by humans due to their little knowledge or lack of effective technologies for their use. These include, in particular, fungi used mainly in folk medicine and a small number of species used in official medicine. On some data (Wasser, Sytnik, Buchalo, & Solomko, 2002), many basidiomycetes contain bioactive polysaccharides found in 651 species from 182 genera of higher basidiomycetes. They are particularly effective in the prevention of oncogenesis, showing direct antitumor activity and preventing the development of tumor metastases. More than 17% of the total number of species noted in the mycobiota of the Southern Urals have medicinal properties. These include, in particular, Kuehneromyces mutabilis (Schaeff.: Fr.) Sing.et A. H. Sm., Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull.: Fr.) Murrill, Piptoporus betulinus (Bull.: Fr.) P. Karst., Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.: Fr.) Kumm. et al. (Safonov, 2005).

The estimation of the direct cost of fungal resources is based on the analysis of the market value of the collected biomass and the products of its processing. The value of direct use of fungal resources, i.e. the cost of fungi collected and consumed by the population of the region can be estimated with the help of the following formula:

С_du = F_a × P_a × MP_a

where С_du – cost of direct use of regional fungal resources; F_a – forest area of region (ha); P_a – average productivity of fungi in regional forests (kg/ha/year); MP_a – average market price (rub/kg). According to calculations, the cost of direct use of all edible fungi of the Orenburg region is 915.25 million rubles /year, based on the average price of mushrooms 250 rubles/kg.

Speaking of the economic importance of mushrooms, it is necessary to note not only the possible positive but also negative aspects of their life, which can lead to economic losses or have a negative impact on the person. Primarily that concerns to poisonous macromycetes such as Amanita virosa Lam.: Secr., Hypholoma fasciculare (Huds.: Fr.) Kumm., Amanita pantherina (DC: Fr.) Kromb., Amanita muscaria (L.:Fr.) Hook et al. (Safonov, 2005).

Another aspect of the functioning of fungi, leading to economic losses - the mycogenic wood destruction. A group of wood-destroying basidiomycetes are quite numerous and mainly includes aphyllophoroid and also a number of agaricoid fungi. The negative effect of the activity of wood-destroying fungi is determined by the destruction of treated wood and wooden structures and by causing root and stem rot of living trees. In the Orenburg region the most active pathogens are Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref., Porodaedalea pini (Brot.:Fr.) Murrill, Fomes fomentarius (L.: Fr.) Fr., Phellinus igniarius Niemela, P. tremulae (Bond.) Bond.& Boris., Polyporus squamosus Huds.:Fr., Fistulina hepatica (Schaeff.:.Fr.) Fr., Fomitoporia robusta (P.Karst.) Fiasson & Niemela, Inocutis dryophila (Berk.) Fiasson & Niemela (Safonov, 2005).

Economic evaluation of mycobiota ecological functions

The ecological component of biological resource potential includes all the functions of biota or its components that ensure the functioning of ecosystems. For fungi, these functions first of all are represented by their activity as reducents. The evaluation performed by the mycobiota ecosystem functions is the sum of the values fulfilling certain functions – destruction, production, regulation and indication.

Probably the cost of implementation of ecosystem functions makes a significant contribution to the total value of mushroom resources. In the world practice, the calculation of such value of biological resources is based on the assessment of participation in the deposition of carbon dioxide by plants, as well as taking into account the economic effect of recreation (Dixon, Scura, Carpenter & Sherman, 2013). Destruction of wood by fungi can be considered as an inverse process of the deposition of carbon dioxide, i.e. from an economic point of view, it should be assessed as unprofitable. However, the destructive activity of fungi ensures the supply of the ecosystem of a number of compounds in a relatively easily digestible form, essential for plant growth, i.e., they are the condition of carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems in the next period of time. Thus, the activity of the system of reducents is an integral part of the system of circulation of carbon and other elements in ecosystems. Consequently, the activity of the system of reducents can be indirectly estimated by taking into account the amount of carbon deposited by the forest ecosystem.

According to data (Lefsky et al., 2002), the annual growth of wood and green mass in broad-leaved forests is accompanied by carbon deposition in the amount of 3045 kg/ha. The conversion of deposited carbon by the amount of carbon dioxide gives an amount equal to 11.17 tons of CO₂ /ha. According to the Kyoto Protocol, the cost of depositing one ton of carbon dioxide is USD $10-50. In this case, the indirect cost of fungi in forest ecosystems will be equal to:

С_i = М_СО2 × F_a × С_СО2 ,

where: C_I-indirect cost of fungi of region; M_CO2 – the amount of carbon dioxide deposited in the annual increase (tons); F_a-forest area of region (ha); C_CO2 – cost of 1 ton of deposited CO₂ according to Kyoto Protocol (USD $/ton). The cost of the existence of fungi in the forest ecosystems of the region can be estimated at 3.5 – 17.5 billion rubles / year.

Economic evaluation of social functions of mycobiota

Separate species, their communities and the habitat as a whole can be perceived as a public necessity; they can be assessed for their beauty and as a result for increasing the recreational potential of the territory. The criterion of aesthetic value is often criticized because of the subjectivity, since aesthetic appeal has the personal features (De Leo & Levin, 1997).

Aesthetic value is one of the components of the cost of non-use, which also includes the cost of existence and the cost of inheritance. The cost of existence reflects the benefits of the individual or society derived only from the knowledge that the goods or services exist. In assessing the cost of existence, simplified economic approaches based on the concept “willingness to pay” are used (Martín-López, Montes & Benayas, 2007). At the same time, sociological methods (questioning or population survey to assess the resource potential) or indirect methods such as the method of transport and travel costs, reflecting the value of objects, are used. Usually, the cost of non-use is calculated for natural complexes but we used the same sociological methods to obtain information about the cost of the existence of fungi in the region.

According to data from Russia (Bukvareva et al., 2015), the willingness to pay for the existence of natural complexes in our country is about $ 1 /year per person. The allocation of readiness to pay for fungi from the total aesthetic value of natural complexes is difficult, since the “willingness to pay” includes not only the aesthetic value of mushrooms, but also their potential consumer utility.

We conducted a survey to find out “willingness to pay” of the population of the Orenburg region for the conservation of natural resources. The results of the study showed that the majority of respondents (74.8 %) positively assess the possibility of their own financial contributions to the conservation of natural resources of the region. Respondents were also asked to evaluate the idea of making their own funds available to preserve the most productive habitats of fungi in their residence areas. More than half of respondents (66.4 %) agreed to invest personal funds in the conservation of fungal resources in the region.

The willingness of the population of the region to pay for the conservation of fungal resources can be estimated by the following formula:

С_ae = P × R × C

where C_E - esthetic cost (”ready to pay"); P – population size; R – proportion of residents, ready to pay (%); C – annual contribution (rubles /year). The aesthetic value of fungal resources in the region is approximately 146.1 million rubles / year.

To the cost of existence of the species own value is also applied. From the point of view of species own value, each species has its own true value, which is independent from any direct or indirect utility for people (Callicot, 1986; Naess & Rothenberg, 1989). From a biological point of view, each species of fungi is a product of long-term evolutionary development, which determines the treasure of each species. However, there are still no well-developed approaches to the real valuation of biodiversity (Barbier, 1989). This is primarily due to the difficulties encountered in assessing the benefits of the existence of individual species. Only several types of biodiversity has its own economic value – they can be sold and measured through the direct use of certain species or ecotourism.

One of the possible forms of partial economic evaluation of species diversity – valuation of rare species through the determination of avoided damage to these species based on forfeits for damages. The value of the prevented damage to rare species is determined by the formula:

$${\mathit{D}}_{\mathit{A}}={\sum }_{\mathit{i}=\mathit{1}}^{\mathit{N}}(\mathit{N}{\mathit{o}}_{\mathit{i}}\times {\mathit{H}}_{\mathit{i}})\times {\mathit{K}}_{\mathit{R}}$$

where: D_A - assessment in monetary form of the size of the prevented ecological damage, thousand rubles, i =1,2,3,..., N - quantity of species; No _i – total number of individuals of the i -th species living in this territory; H _i – fee for damage to this species, rubles; K_R – regional coefficient of biodiversity for the Orenburg region.

The coefficient of regional diversity for the Orenburg region is 8.1; tax is for the destruction or illegal collection of each sample of the fungus, according to the order of the Ministry of natural resources of Russia of 04.05.1994, № 126 – 0.15, on minimum wage. Based on the above-mentioned conditions and the number of rare fungi species on the territory of the Orenburg region, the approximate value of its own value species is only 31.6 thousand rubles/year;