It is increasingly recognized that the economic value of forests is not merely the production of timber. Forests provide other key ecosystem services, such as being sinks for greenhouse gases, hotspots of biodiversity, tourism and recreation. They are also vitally important in preventing soil erosion and controlling water supplies, as well as providing non-timber forest products and supporting the livelihoods of many local people. This handbook provides a detailed, comprehensive and broad coverage of forest economics, including traditional forest economics of timber production, economics of environmental role of forests, and recent developments in forest economics. The chapters are grouped into six parts: fundamental topics in forest resource economics; economics of forest ecosystems; economics of forests, climate change, and bioenergy; economics of risk, uncertainty, and natural disturbances; economics of forest property rights and certification; and emerging issues and developments. Written by leading environmental, forest, and natural resource economists, the book represents a definitive reference volume for students of economics, environment, forestry and natural resource economics and management.

Covers these topics: regional, national, and global vision of forest fires: common problems and approaches, theory and models for strategic fire planning, economic analysis and modeling for fire mgmt., forest fires and sustainable forest mgmt., public policies and forest mgmt., hazardous fuels treatment, wildland fire use and fire suppression activities, examples of fire mgmt. plans and strategic fire resource allocation, and a round table on the role of international organizations in forest fire solutions. Representatives from international organizations with fire protection responsibilities in 12 countries presented and discussed their experiences on the same issues. Charts and tables.

This major reference work the first of its kind provides a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the large and growing literature on contingent valuation. It includes entries on over 7,500 contingent valuation papers and studies from over 130 countries covering both the published and grey literatures. This book provides an interpretive historical account of the development of contingent valuation, the most commonly used approach to placing a value on goods not normally sold in the marketplace. The major fields catalogued here include culture, the environment, and health application. This bibliography is an ideal starting point for researchers wanting to find other studies that have valued goods or used techniques similar to those they are interested in. For those wanting to conduct meta analyses, the book will serve as an invaluable guide to source material. For those wanting to conduct meta analyses, the book will serve as an invaluable guide to source material. In addition to the print edition we offer access, for purchasers of the book, to a website providing the contents of as a searchable Word document and in a variety of standard bibliographic database forms. Contingent Valuation is an indispensable reference source for researchers, scholars and policymakers concerned with survey approaches to the problem of environmental valuation.

This book presents the findings of the study, and offers analysis of both its methodological and policy-related implications. On the methodology side, it assesses and validates the valuation workshop approach; appraises the effect of distance on willingness to pay and the influence of the respondents’ ability to pay. From a policy perspective, the book examines the attitudes and preference of respondents on trade-offs between economic growth and ecological use.

Fundamental changes have occurred in all aspects of forestry over the last 50 years, including the underlying science, societal expectations of forests and their management, and the evolution of a globalized economy. This textbook is an effort to comprehensively integrate this new knowledge of forest ecosystems and human concerns and needs into a management philosophy that is applicable to the vast majority of global forest lands. Ecological forest management (EFM) is focused on policies and practices that maintain the integrity of forest ecosystems while achieving environmental, economic, and cultural goals of human societies. EFM uses natural ecological models as its basis contrasting it with modern production forestry, which is based on agronomic models and constrained by required return-on-investment. Sections of the book consider: 1) Basic concepts related to forest ecosystems and silviculture based on natural models; 2) Social and political foundations of forestry, including law, economics, and social acceptability; 3) Important current topics including wildfire, biological diversity, and climate change; and 4) Forest planning in an uncertain world from small privately-owned lands to large public ownerships. The book concludes with an overview of how EFM can contribute to resolving major 21st century issues in forestry, including sustaining forest dependent societies.

Balancing society's multiple and sometimes competing objectives regarding forests calls for information describing the direct and indirect benefits resulting from forest policy and management, whether to address wildfire, loss of open space, unmanaged recreation, ecosystem restoration, or other objectives. The USDA Forest Service recently has proposed the concept of ecosystem services as a framework for (1) describing the many benefits provided by public and private forests, (2), evaluating the effects of policy and management decisions involving public and private forest lands, and (3) advocating the use of economic and market-based incentives to protect private forest lands from development. The concept extends traditional economic theory regarding multiple forest benefits and the use of economic incentives to enhance their provision, by emphasizing ecosystems as an organizing structure for benefits. Although the emphasis on ecosystems is new, challenges in evaluating ecosystem services are similar to those long faced by economists tasked with evaluating forest benefits: (1) defining a typology of ecosystem services, (2) describing and measuring ecosystem services units or outputs, and (3) describing and measuring ecosystem services per unit of values or social weights. Progress within the Forest Service in applying the ecosystem services concept to forest policy and management will depend on knowing what information will suffice, working across disciplines, deciding on appropriate analytical frameworks, defining the appropriate role of economic and market-based incentives, and adequately funding economics research.