Leif Mattsson

The value of forests for tourism in Sweden.

Sweden has a vast quantity of forests and the Right of Common Access allows tourists to freely enter any forest no matter who owns it. An economic valuation study was carried out in two tourism areas, one in the southern part of the country and one in the northern part. It was shown that a considerable portion of the value to tourists is attributable to forest characteristics. Furthermore, the results suggest that this value can be increased by modifying forest management practices; for example, by making clearcuts smaller, even if there were more of them, and by increasing the proportion of broad leaved trees in forest stands.

The non-timber value of northern Swedish forests: an economic analysis.

For the forests in the county of Vasterbotten in northern Sweden, this study attempts to quantify the non‐timber value arisen from on‐site consumptive use (berry‐ and mushroom‐picking), on‐site non‐consumptive use (hiking, camping, etc.), and off‐site visual experience. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was applied in a mail survey for obtaining empirical data. A follow‐up survey was also conducted in order to get knowledge about the representativeness of the respondents to the CVM survey. The results indicated that the non‐timber value accounted for a considerable portion of the total forest value. On‐site consumptive use was more valuable to rural people than to urban, while on‐site non‐consumptive use was more valuable to urban people. Taken together, these on‐site use values—which to a large extent depend on the Right of Common Access—accounted for two‐thirds of the non‐timber value. The value of the off‐site visual experience thus accounted for one‐third of the non‐timber value.

Attitudes towards various forest functions: A comparison between private forest owners and forest officers

Abstract In Sweden, privately owned forests provide timber as well as recreational opportunities and biodiversity. In general, forest officers from organizations, whose business is to serve private forest owners, manage these forests. Through survey data, this study compared the attitudes of private forest owners towards various forest functions to how forest officers understand these attitudes. The views of forest owners and forest officers did not always coincide, nor did the attitudes of forest owners in different regions of Sweden. Forest officers regarded timber production as more important than did forest owners. Forest owners considered recreational and environmental functions of the forest as more important to them than did forest officers. Possible explanations for these differences were discussed, along with forest policy implications.

Forest ecosystem research - priorities for Europe.

Abstract European Forest Ecosystem Research Network (EFERN), was set up in 1996 as one result of the Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of European Forests in Strasbourg 1990 and Helsinki 1993 with the aim of promoting ecological research for sustainable forest management. Three plenary meetings were held, each with a specific theme. The results of these meetings have been documented in 10 chapters in a volume with the title ‘Pathways to the wise use of forests in Europe’. The intention was also to give priorities for future forest ecosystem research. In accepting the idea that sustainability includes a multifunctional view of forests, there is a need to find ways of integrating classical forest ecosystem research with biodiversity, water quality and socio-economics. The balancing of the different interests in the forests can be done through planning. From this results also a choice of adequate management methods of the forest resources. The classical stand level in forestry requires now an additional scale — the landscape level. The aim with this paper is to present a concept which attempts to integrate the disciplines involved — ecosystem and landscape ecology and its components. Areas where research efforts are central are also mentioned.

Conservation goals and the relative importance of costs and benefits in reserve selection.

Including both economic costs and biological benefits of sites in systematic reserve selection greatly increases cost-efficiency. Nevertheless, limited funding generally forces conservation planners to choose which data to focus the most resources on; therefore, the relative importance of different types of data must be carefully assessed. We investigated the relative importance of including information about costs and benefits for 3 different commonly used conservation goals: 2 in which biological benefits were measured per site (species number and conservation value scores) and 1 in which benefits were measured on the basis of site complementarity (total species number in the reserve network). For each goal, we used site-selection models with data on benefits only, costs only, and benefits and costs together, and we compared the efficiency of each model. Costs were more important to include than benefits for the goals in which benefits were measured per site. By contrast, for the complementarity-based goal, benefits were more important to include. To understand this pattern, we compared the variability in benefits and in costs for each goal. By comparing the best and the worst possible selection of sites with regard to costs alone and benefits alone for each conservation goal, we introduced a simple and consistent variability measure that is applicable to all kinds of reserve-selection situations. In our study, benefit variability depended strongly on how the conservation goal was formulated and was largest for the complementarity-based conservation goal. We argue that from a cost-efficiency point of view, most resources should be spent on collecting the most variable type of data for the conservation goal at hand.

Hunting in Sweden: Extent, economic values and structural problems

This article, that is based on an empirical study, deals with the extent and economic values of moose hunting and hunting for other game, with a geographical division into Southern Sweden (Gotaland and Svealand) and Northern Sweden (Norrland). Furthermore, structural problems regarding the allocation of hunting among hunters are discussed. About two‐thirds of the total hunting value of all game in the country refers to recreation and one‐third refers to meat. Considerably more than one‐half of the total hunting value of all game is attributable to moose hunting. Nearly three‐quarters of the total hunting value is accounted for by Southern Sweden, the main reasons being that the majority of hunters as well as the major part of the total bag is based in the south. The total (gross) hunting value does largely exceed the money that the hunters actually pay for their hunting. For many hunters, especially in Northern Sweden, there are large discrepancies between the actual extent of their hunting and their real...

Moose management and the economic value of hunting: Towards bioeconomic analysis

An appropriate moose management requires knowledge about how the economy of moose, in terms of values (benefits) and costs, responds to alterations in the moose population. This article, that is based on an empirical study, focuses on one segment of this problem field—the value of moose hunting. It deals with the question of how this value, including aspects of recreation as well as meat, is changing when the moose population density is altered. Furthermore, the article discusses the significance to the hunting value of the moose populations age structure. Generally the hunting value increases—but at a decreasing rate—as the moose population density is increased. There are, however, large geographical differences, so that a certain increase in the moose population density means a lot to the hunting value in one region but less in another. Many moose hunters would, in consideration of their own hunting pleasure, prefer an adult/calve ratio for the bag of moose that diverges considerably from what is stipu...

Preferences and willingness to pay for close to home nature for outdoor recreation in Sweden.

In Sweden there is a strong tradition of using nature areas for outdoor recreation. This paper reports on a study which explored preferences and willingness to pay for outdoor recreation close to home (≤100 km away from home and ≤24 hours stay at a recreation site) using the contingent valuation method. The data originated from a mail survey that involved Swedish residents who were randomly selected from a national register. An ordinary least squares regression model was used to account for factors influencing willingness to pay. The results showed that approximately 50% of the respondents used nature areas close to their home for recreation and their average frequency of visits to these areas was 74 times annually. Areas dominated by forests were the most preferred, followed by water. The respondents were willing to pay approximately 7200 SEK (US

Influence of outdoor recreation on self-rated human health: comparing three categories of Swedish recreationists

1080) annually. Their willingness to pay was influenced by factors such as type of nature area, distance to and time spent at the recreation site and income. The results provide one input to the land use planning process by considering the demand for nature-based outdoor recreation close to home.

On the budget for national environmental objectives and willingness to pay for protection of forest land

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between self-rated human health and outdoor recreation, comparing three categories of Swedish outdoor recreationists. Data were obtained from three different surveys, concerning outdoor recreation in all of Sweden, outdoor recreation in southern Swedish forests and hunting in all of Sweden. The influence of outdoor recreation on health was measured by comparing self-rated health in the current situation with a hypothetical situation where the possibility for outdoor recreation was suggested to be removed. The removal resulted in a reduction of average self-rated health in all three samples. The average reduction was significantly different between the samples. The results in this paper suggest that methods usually used in medical research can also be useful in the context of measuring the influence of outdoor recreation on human health.