A Study of Wetland Valuation Practice for Compensation in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

The study examined wetland valuation practice for compensation in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. The primary data used for the study were obtained from questionnaire administered on 120 respondent Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in the study area. Personal and/or telephone interviews were conducted on the Heads of Department of Estate Management of the various Universities offering Estate Management in the Southern part of Nigeria, to ascertain whether environmental valuation is being taught in the affected institutions. Equally, personal/telephone interview was conducted on the officials of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), to ascertain whether environmental valuation is included in the curriculum for professional examinations. The primary data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 17). Relative importance index and principal component analysis were applied in testing for the most important factors influencing the choice of wetland valuation methods in the study area. Major findings of the study were that Estate Surveyors and Valuers in the Niger Delta adopted open market (56.4%) and cost (27.3%) bases for wetland valuation as against total economic value basis (16.3%) which takes cognisance of non-use value aspects of wetland ecosystems, traditional methods cannot be wholly applied to the valuation of wetland ecosystems because they cannot capture the value of attributes, functions and services which are not traded in the open market, respondents in the study area adopted methods that rely more on market evidence, except contingent valuation, which considers evidences both within and outside of open market, only four factors have major influences on the choice of wetland valuation method adopted in the study area. These are availability of data (RII; 4.16), availability of substitute sites (RII; 3.49), limitations of valuation methods (RII; 3.47) and people’s perception (RII; 3.00). The study also revealed that valuing wetland resources in the study area is fraught with various challenges including lack of data (87.3%, RII; 3.84), complex wetland ecosystems (80.0%, RII; 3.75), inadequate government policy (69.1%, RII; 3.29) and sophisticated survey design (63.6%, RII; 2.35). The study further revealed that only 5.5% of the respondents took any course in environmental valuation during their undergraduate school days. Also environmental valuation has not been included in NIESV Professional valuation curriculum. The study equally revealed that there was no government policy on wetland ecosystems. The study recommends that Estate Surveyors and Valuers should adopt total economic value basis for wetland valuation instead open market value and cost bases and also contemporary methods so as to capture both use and non-use values of wetland resources. NIESV should include environmental valuation in the curriculum for professional examinations and organise mandatory training/workshop/seminar on wetland valuation from time to time to keep members up-to-date with the appropriate techniques available. Also, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) should mandate Institutions offering Estate Management programmes to include environmental valuation as a Course, rather than treating it as a topic, as is currently done in most universities.