Fuyuan county, located to the north-east of the Sanjiang Plain but excluding the Muling-Xingkai Plain to the south of the Wanda Mountain, northeastern Heilongjiang province (China), has seen rapid change to the marsh and its agriculture. In 1982, 16.9% of the county was marshland and only 0.7% was dedicated to paddy fields. By 2005, 12.9% was marshland and 7.7% was paddy field. During this period, the agricultural population in the county rose from 28.5×103 to 79.4×103, and the numbers of households from 3.7×103 to 26.1×103. At the same time, the price of paddy and the productivity of paddies also increased. All these pressures combined to drive substantial changes to the marsh and paddy field. This paper considers the loss of the marsh ecosystem in terms of its total value and value per unit area, and assesses the overall benefits to people from the changes in paddy production. The authors also identify the total lost value of carbon formerly sequestered in the marsh compared with the net agricultural gains. Carbon sequestration lost a value of 55.50×106 Chinese Yuan (CNY; 100 CNY was equivalent to roughly US$12 in 2005), which was considerably less than the value of products (272.42×106CNY) returned from the paddy fields. In terms of the benefits to society, the marsh created between 210.8×106 and 266.3×106 CNY, though the commercial/private benefits of the paddy field outweighed the benefits to society due to the fact that they are real while the societal benefits (although also real) have a monetary compensation that is hypothetical. Value per unit area of paddy field was much higher than that of the marsh except in 1982, before the people began to pursue more profitable private activities. Understanding the societal tradeoffs between the contributions of a wetland ecosystem and agricultural expansion is a key ingredient in successful ecosystem management.
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