Biodiversity protection and economics in long term boreal forest management — A detailed case for the valuation of protection measures

Even Bergseng, Jon Andreas Ask, Erik Framstad, Terje Gobakken, Birger Solberg and Hans Fredrik Hoen

Forest Policy and Economics, 2012, vol. 15, issue C, 12-21

Abstract: Increased protection of forest biodiversity implies reduced income from timber production both for society and forest owners, and consistent analysis of the relationships between biodiversity benefits and corresponding costs is important both for forest managers as well as policy makers. Using a complex dynamic forest optimization model, we analyse impacts on economy and biodiversity of forest management restrictions implemented to protect biodiversity. A reference scenario is compared to two preservation regimes based on 1) the current Norwegian forest certification system and 2) an expert judgement designed to put strong emphasis on biodiversity protection in boreal forests. Economic impacts are expressed as net present value and harvesting level, while impacts on forest structure are expressed by a vector of variables including old forest proportions, growing stock, number of retention trees, size of buffer zones and amount of dead wood. A rather detailed description of forest structure and biodiversity measures represents the main improvements compared to previous analyses. Different restrictions result in 10–45% decrease in economic value of the forest compared to no restrictions. The most costly measures are found to be 50% increased rotation and keeping old-growth proportions higher than 20%.

Keywords: Planning; Forest optimization; Forest management; Bioeconomic modelling; Forest economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934111001857
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:forpol:v:15:y:2012:i:c:p:12-21

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2011.11.002

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().