The concept of Ecosystem Services has evolved lately from identification to valuation of all relevant services as per different ecosystems. The valuation of Ecosystem Services has helped ecologists/environmentalists to attach a value to non-marketable services. However, this ecological perspective has overlooked the social perspective towards Ecosystem Services. Every individual perceives Ecosystem Services differently which, if incorporated into decision making process, can offer holistic understanding of benefits provided by ecosystems for human well-being. The paper focuses on identifying, analysing and comparing community perceived notions towards watershed Ecosystem Services in two villages (Sewanpani and Pandutalab) within two micro-watersheds at a homogeneous scale. The paper has also tried to capture the relevance of other social factors such as gender and age in influencing the society's perceptions. Results show that villagers attach more importance to provisioning services i.e. fresh drinking water and water for livestock followed by different regulating services and cultural services. The Study also indicates that property rights over watershed structures influence the perceptions of local people. Village Sewanpani, dominated by Common pool resources perceived ‘water storage and drought control’ as most important service whereas Village Pandutalab, dominated by private structures perceived ‘water regulation’ as an important service. Besides this, the study has also concluded that various factors such as climatic conditions, social background, educational background and cultural norms being identical, gender and age do not influence community's perceptions towards watershed Ecosystem Services. In all, the paper has demonstrated that though ecologists/environmentalists value all Ecosystem Services as important, the Community perceives various Ecosystem Services differently. It is therefore, important that various factors which influence the perception of community should be considered while taking policy decisions.
Ecosystem services, Watershed, Community, Water, Environmental Valuation, Property Rights
