Valuing forest ecosystem services: Case study of a forest reserve in Japan

Karachepone Ninan and Makoto Inoue

Ecosystem Services, 2013, vol. 5, issue C, 78-87

Abstract: Forests ecosystems provide several intangible benefits which policy makers ignore since these values do not register in conventional markets or are difficult to measure. Drawing on results of a case study of a forest reserve in Japan, this paper suggests that the annual value of the ecosystem services provided by forests is not only worth millions of dollars, but also in per hectare terms much more than hitherto known. This value for the Oku Aizu forest reserve ranged US$ 1.427–1.482 billion or about US$ 17,016–17,671 per ha. If these are accounted for, then governments and societies faced with the development versus conservation dilemma can make more informed decisions and policies that will help conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, and thereby promote human well-being and sustainable development.

Keywords: Economic valuation; Forest ecosystem services; Oku Aizu forest reserve; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041613000156
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:5:y:2013:i:c:p:78-87

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.02.006

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().