Social risks of forest fires: a methodological proposal for their monetary evaluation

Isabel Mendes

No 2018/02, Working Papers Department of Economics from ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa

Abstract: The risk of forest fire in Portugal ranks among the highest in Europe. In recent times, fears have risen over the incidence of major forest fires with a scale and dimension that generate extremely high economic, environmental and social costs. Combatting this type of fire represents a particularly difficult and expensive objective and, in some cases, with a far from desirable level of efficiency. Particularly due to the national context characterised by severe budgetary restrictions, guaranteeing greater effectiveness and efficiency in forest fire prevention and fighting represents core objectives. One of the ways of improving the decision making process involves the monetary estimation of the total costs caused by fires and their respective risk levels, thus the cost of the risk of fire (in the sense of the economic cost calculated from the perspective of society in contrast to the concept of economic cost calculated according to the private ownership perspective) and that includes the probability of the incidence of fire and its propagation and the total cost of the damage that incorporates both the specific social costs, the economic cost and the environmental cost. This working paper holds the objective of contributing towards the conceptual and methodological discussion around this theme.

Keywords: forest fires; social cost; monetary evaluation; methodology. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q23 Q51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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