Valuation of natural environment at the Eslava river watershed in Mexico City

Abstract

The objective of this work is to identify value judgments of land owners living within the Eslava river watershed, in relation to ecosystem’s services provided by the site. Openquestion polls were employed, applying them to a sample of forty two land owners (male and female). The answers were structured using the manual indexation method, using witness statements as the unit of analysis and the types of ecosystem functions as the categories. The quantitative analysis was complemented with a frequency analysis of the opinions. It was identified that land owners value the watershed mainly because it provides them with food, water and clean air. It is apparent they rightly understand the synergy between the ecosystem’s components and that they recognize urban development as a threatening factor for the watershed and the forest. These findings will allow the creation of social and environmental programs capable of integrating the local vision and, from an understanding of it, take care of the environmental problem.