Forestry, Economics and the Environment

Global interest in forest conservation, biodiversity preservation, and non-timber values has risen while pressures on the forest as a source of income and employment have also increased. These demands are often conflicting, making forest planning, allocation and policy formation very complex. This volume explores theoretical and applied issues surrounding forest resource allocation. The book is divided into three sections: (1) Tropical Forests: Environment, Economics and Trade, (2) Non-Timber Valuation: Theory and Application, and (3) Ecosystem Management. The first section focuses on tropical forests, reflecting the fact that global environmental concerns surrounding these regions are often in conflict with local economic objectives. The chapters in this section examine mechanisms for capturing or optimizing total (timber and non-timber) economic value from tropical forests and the implications of forest policy on global trade in forest products and production from tropical forest regions. The second section examines non-timber values. These values, particularly existence or passive use values, are important in planning and policy decisions. However, these non-timber valuation techniques are also very controversial. This section examines theoretical advances in non-timber valuation and presents case studies employing state of the art techniques. The third section considers ecosystem management, a concept that promotes the use of forest harvesting practices that mimic natural disturbance patterns. The impact of ecosystem management on timber and non-timber values is largely unknown. The chapters in this section explore these issues from theoretical and applied perspectives. Overall, the book should be of interest to readers in forestry and environmental economics.

Table of Contents:
1: Pluralism and Pragmatism in the Pursuit of Sustainable Development, E N Castle 2: Global Environmental Value and the Tropical Forests: Demonstration and Capture, D Pearce 3: Local Timber Production and Global Trade: The Environmental Implications of Forestry Trade, R A Sedjo 4: Can Tropical Forests be Saved by Harvesting Non-Timber Products? A Case Study for Ecuador, D Southgate, M Coles-Ritchie and P Salazar-Canelos 5: Conflicts between trade and sustainable forestry policies in the Philippines, H W Wisdom 6: Measuring general public preservation values for forest resources: evidence from contingent valuation surveys, J B Loomis 7: Citizens, consumers and contingent valuation: clarification and the expression of citizen values and issue-opinions, R K Blamey 8: Moral responsibility effects in valuation of WTA for public and private goods by the method of paired comparison, G L Peterson, T C Brown, D W McCollum, P A Bell, A A Birjulin and A Clarke 9: Integrating cognitive psychology into the contingent valuation method to explore the trade-offs between non-market costs and benefits of alternative afforestation programs in Ireland, W G Hutchinson and S M Chilton 10: Valuing tropical rainforest protection using the contingent valuation method, R A Kramer, E Mercer and N Sharme 11: The safe minimum standard approach: an alternative to measuring non-use values for environmental assets? R P Berrens 12: An economic-ecological model for ecosystem management, R Mendelsohn 13: Application of a bioeconomic strategic planning model to an industrial forest in Saskatchewan, B Stewart and M Martel 14: Incentives for managing landscapes to meet non-timber goals: lessons from the Washington landscape management project, B Lippke 15: Perspectives on educating forestry professionals in an environmentally conscious age, J C Nautiyal