Physical soil protection in forests - insights from production-, industrial- and institutional economics

Oliver Thees and Roland Olschewski

Forest Policy and Economics, 2017, vol. 80, issue C, 99-106

Abstract: The protection of forest soil is an issue of increasing concern to Central European forestry. The focus lies on the impact of forest harvesting machinery on soil and the resulting risks to the forest ecosystem in general and to soil fertility in particular. The economic dimension of the issue becomes increasingly apparent when wet weather hampers the planning and execution of forestry operations. Public interest has also increased: damage to the forest floor is negatively perceived by the population as well as nature conservationists, and attracts media attention. With the overall sustainability of forest management at stake, the issue entails major ecological as well as economic and political challenges. The article examines physical soil protection from various economic perspectives, focusing on (i) production economics, (ii) industrial economics and (iii) institutional economics. The findings of this comprehensive approach contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of this private and public good. Possible challenges in the future are posed by climate change and increasing demand for forest resources. These could massively exacerbate the problem of forest soil protection and drive up its costs. Further economic analysis is needed to improve decision making in soil protection to ensure sustainable forest management.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934117300771
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:80:y:2017:i:c:p:99-106

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2017.01.024

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 ().