Title: Relevance of wetland economic valuation in Uganda. A case study of Kiyanja-kaku wetland in Lwengo, Central Uganda

This study examined the relevance of economic valuation of wetlands in Uganda. A case study was done on the Kiyanja-Kaku wetland in the Lwengo District in Central Uganda using a semistructured survey. Three objectives were examined, i.e.: (i) To identify wetland ecosystem services in Uganda, (ii) To identify the economic valuation methods appropriate for wetlands in Uganda, and (iii) To value the clean water obtained from the Kiyanja-Kaku wetland. The wetland ecosystem services were identified as provisioning and regulating habitat, cultural and amenities services. The community had knowledge about 17 out of the 22 services as given by TEEB (2010). The economic valuation methods identified were market price, efficiency price, travel cost, contingent valuation, hedonic pricing, and production function and benefit transfer methods. These were appropriate for valuation of wetlands in Uganda, but only three methods, i.e. market price, contingent valuation and productivity methods, have been applied by researchers in Uganda so far. The economic value of clean water from the Kiyanja-Kaku wetland to the nearby community was established by using the market price of clean water the National Water and Sewerage Corporation charges for the water in Uganda to obtain the low value and the market price of water from the survey was used to obtain the high value. The estimated economic value of clean water service for a household ranges from UGX 612174 to 4054733 (US$ 168.0-1095.0). The estimated economic value of clean water service from Kiyanja-Kaku wetland to the entire community ranges from UGX 2,732,133,000.0 to 18,096,274,000.0 (US$ 775,228.0-4,885,994.0).