TY - JOUR
T1 - Valuing forest ecosystem services
T2 - Case study of a forest reserve in Japan
AU - Ninan, K. N.
AU - Inoue, Makoto
N1 - Funding Information:
Thanks are due to the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for supporting this study. Authors are grateful to Professors Charles Perrings, John Loomis, Clem Tisdell, Joshua Farley and two anonymous reviewers of this journal for comments on an earlier draft. Discussions with Professors Kentaro Yoshida and Masahiro Fujiwara were beneficial for this research.
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - Forests ecosystems provide several intangible benefits which policy makers ignore since these values do not register in conventional markets or are difficult to measure. Drawing on results of a case study of a forest reserve in Japan, this paper suggests that the annual value of the ecosystem services provided by forests is not only worth millions of dollars, but also in per hectare terms much more than hitherto known. This value for the Oku Aizu forest reserve ranged US$ 1.427-1.482 billion or about US$ 17,016-17,671 per ha. If these are accounted for, then governments and societies faced with the development versus conservation dilemma can make more informed decisions and policies that will help conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, and thereby promote human well-being and sustainable development.
AB - Forests ecosystems provide several intangible benefits which policy makers ignore since these values do not register in conventional markets or are difficult to measure. Drawing on results of a case study of a forest reserve in Japan, this paper suggests that the annual value of the ecosystem services provided by forests is not only worth millions of dollars, but also in per hectare terms much more than hitherto known. This value for the Oku Aizu forest reserve ranged US$ 1.427-1.482 billion or about US$ 17,016-17,671 per ha. If these are accounted for, then governments and societies faced with the development versus conservation dilemma can make more informed decisions and policies that will help conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, and thereby promote human well-being and sustainable development.
KW - Economic valuation
KW - Forest ecosystem services
KW - Japan
KW - Oku Aizu forest reserve
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884594477&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84884594477&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.02.006
DO - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.02.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84884594477
SN - 2212-0416
VL - 5
SP - 78
EP - 87
JO - Ecosystem Services
JF - Ecosystem Services
ER -