Mattias Boman

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.

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.

Integrated Natural Resource Management in Northern Sweden: An Application to Forestry and Reindeer Husbandry

Forests in northern Sweden are used for both timber production and reindeer grazing. Negative externalities and open access effects threaten the ability of the region to sustain economic benefits from these uses. A discrete time simulation for three municipalities in northern Sweden suggests that modifying forest harvest practices can enhance profits from reindeer production, with relatively low timber opportunity costs. Such efforts to sustain joint benefits from these boreal environments are more likely to be successful in combination with control of reindeer herd sizes. (JEL Q21, Q23)

Valuing the wolf in Sweden : Are benefits contingent upon the supply?

In Sweden the future existence of a considerable number of animals and plants is very uncertain. The Swedish Environmental Protection Board (SNV) currently classifies 465 species as endangered (Eriksson and Hedlund, 1993; Sjoberg, 1993). These are species in danger of extinction, as reproducing populations, within the near future if the causal factors currently in place continue operating. “Endangered” is the most severely threatened class (with the exception of “extinct”) in the SNV classification.1 The impoverishment of biodiversity as a result of species extinction is thus an increasing problem in society today. Although preservation of biodiversity involves a cost to society, it may also represent an economic value. An important concept in this respect is the term existence value (cf. Krutilla, 1967). Economists use this term to describe the anthropocentric notion that nature (and consequently mankind) suffers a loss when biodiversity is degraded. Existence value is often used as a collective term for all kinds of nonuse benefits. As Mitchell and Carson (1989) show, existence value can be composed of several different benefit subcategories, such as vicarious consumption, bequest and inherent existence components. There is virtually no way to gain information on the relative importance of existence value from people’s behaviour in the market-place, with the possible exception of donations to environmental organisations. Following Krutilla’s seminal article, several authors have attempted to clarify the nature of existence value (e.g. Brookshire et al., 1983; Edwards, 1986; Stevens et al., 1991; Walsh et al., 1984). The total value of an environmental good such as a wolf population may consist of more than just existence values, it may also contain a use category of benefits. Use benefits are derived from the individual’s direct or indirect physical use of an environmental amenity.

The Bioeconomics of the Spatial Distribution of an Endangered Species: The Case of the Swedish Wolf Population

Conservation of endangered species often entails significant costs, and, from a social perspective, many species can be characterized as both environmental ‘bads’ and ‘goods’. This paper concerns the management of one such species, the Swedish wolf (Canis lupus). The fact that the wolf tends to disperse over a wide area causes specific management problems. The goal is to choose a harvesting strategy, such that the discounted stream of net benefits from the wolf populations in different geographical regions is maximized. The spatial dimension is involved through emigration and immigration. The solution to the management problem is shown to be a modification of the classical rule of renewable resource exploitation, caused by the migration of wolves between regions. Empirically, this problem is solved by dividing Sweden into 13 geographical regions, and accounting for the existence values, harvesting benefits, and predation costs of the wolf population in each region. The results show that the geographical distribution of wolves, in absolute numbers, is very sensitive to the abundance of prey and to different assumptions regarding the economic parameters of the model. However, the relative distribution of wolves across the country is less sensitive to these assumptions. The highest densities of wolves were found in regions with low marginal costs, due to the abundance of prey in relation to the comparatively low number of human hunters utilizing the same prey as the wolves. The lowest population densities were found in regions with a low carrying capacity for the wolf or with high costs of depredation on reindeer.

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.

Non-market forest ecosystem services and decision support in Nordic countries

A number of national environmental objectives have been decided on by the Swedish parliament. In this paper, a measure of willingness to pay for attaining these objectives is outlined in terms of an “environmental budget”, which can be disaggregated. Based on a nationwide contingent valuation survey, the average environmental budget was estimated and then disaggregated on specific “green” indicators. This paper focuses especially on protection of forest land for biodiversity purposes. Multiple bounded dichotomous choice questions were employed in the survey, allowing respondents to express uncertainty in their valuations. The effect of different question formats and valuation scenarios on the disaggregation of the environmental budget was investigated. Consideration of uncertainty had a significant impact on willingness to pay estimates. Willingness to pay varied between different levels of forest land protection when uncertainty was explicitly introduced. When valuation estimates were aggregated on the n...

Selective versus Random Moose Harvesting: Does it Pay to be a Prudent Predator?

ABSTRACT The need to integrate non-market ecosystem services into decision-making is widely acknowledged. Despite the exponentially growing body of literature, trade-offs between services are still poorly understood. We conducted a systematic review of published literature in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) on the integration of non-market forest ecosystem services into decision-making. The aim of the review was two-fold: (1) to provide an overview of coverage of biophysical and socio-economic assessments of non-market ecosystem services in relation to forest management; (2) to determine the extent of the integration of biophysical and socio-economic models of these services into decision support models. Our findings reveal the need for wider coverage of non-market ecosystem services and evidence-based modelling of how forest management regimes affect ecosystem services. Furthermore, temporal and spatial modelling of ecosystem impacts remains a challenge. We observed a few examples of multiple non-market services assessments. Integration of non-market services into decision support was performed with either biophysical or socio-economic models, often using proxies and composite indicators. The review reveals that there is scope for more comprehensive and integrated model development, including multiple ecosystem services and appropriate handling of forest management impacts.