How much primary coastal temperate rain forest should society retain? Carbon uptake, recreation, and other values

Abstract

In this study, average and marginal approaches for determining optimal preservation of primary forests on British Columbia's coast are compared. When the market values from timber, mushrooms, etc., and nonmarket benefits (e.g., carbon sink, preservation values) of preserving old-growth forests are considered (where the opportunity cost of preserving such forests are the benefits of commercial forestry foregone), the average method recommends harvest of all remaining old growth. For the marginal approach, a deterministic optimal control model is solved to compute socially optimal stocks of old growth. In this case, the numerical results indicate that large-scale conversion of old-growth forests cannot be justified on economic grounds.