Patrice Harou

... Les écotaxes ont motivé les économistes de l'environnement à quantifier un possible double dividende, mais la tâche s' est avérée plus difficile que prévu (Bovenberg et Moij, 1994). ... II. Porter, ME et C. Van Der Linde, 1995.«Green and compe-titive: ending the stalemeate». ...

ABSTRACT In this special issue, a sample of the papers presented and discussions held are provided. The selected articles are partly presented in the context of the cost–benefit analysis of forests investments. Public budgeting process nowadays requires in most countries a thorough economic analysis of the annual projects and programmes. Forestry institutions are no exception. However, in the public arena and international organisations, the records of appropriate cost–benefit of forestry projects are scant. A recent review of the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) by the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank which spread the use of CBA to justify development projects, shows that the economic analysis of projects has been diminishing compared to their uses in the 70s. For natural resources, and forestry in particular, the presence of recognised positive externalities seems to have diminished the reason to undertake this analysis. In the context of budgeting constraints encountered by many countries following the 2008 financial crisis, the need for a proper analysis of natural resources investments has been made more acute.

After a review of the literature on the discount rate in economics and forestry, a methodology is proposed to arrive at an appropriate social discount rate to appraise public forestry investments. In the proposed approach, the opportunity cost of capital is considered in the establishment of a shadow price of investment. The social discount rate, which should weight the project net social benefits through time, is an unknown of the net present worth equation set equal to zero.

The with–without analysis used in the evaluation of forestry programs, which are aimed at increasing timber supply from nonindustrial private forest land, offers much leeway for interpretation. Three factors have an important effect on the quantification of a program's net marginal social benefit: the information on yield for managed and unmanaged forest, the behavior of the program participants, and the existence of already existing forestry programs and laws affecting forest management.

... Les écotaxes ont motivé les économistes de l'environnement à quantifier un possible double dividende, mais la tâche s' est avérée plus difficile que prévu (Bovenberg et Moij, 1994). ... II. Porter, ME et C. Van Der Linde, 1995.«Green and compe-titive: ending the stalemeate». ...

The Laboratory of Forestry economics (LEF) was created in 2000 as a joint research unit of the French Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (ENGREF) and the National Institute of Agronomic research (INRA). The mission of the LEF is to conceive, develop, and transfer methods and tools of economic analysis to improve the management of the goods, services and products of the forest and the forestry sector. The aim of this first issue of the “Cahiers du LEF” is to present a synthetic overview of the orientations and future issues for French forest economics research.

In the context of the Lisbon Strategy, forestry training, research and extension are in profound mutation. These changes are considered here in a global and European context. They require a better articulation of the technological, environmental and socio-economic aspects of the curriculum. They invite also a better integration of the tree functions of a professor in an institution of high

Wood trade is becoming truly international. Should France start modeling its forest sector in that global context? A panel of forest sector modelers and practitioners were invited to share their experience and suggest ways to model the french forest sector. An international forest sector model, the Global Forest Products Model, is presented by J. Buongiorno in its newest version in which the supply side has been further developed. This model in its simplest version has been used for a long time by FAO (A. Whittman). A. Baudin has been modeling the forest sector of the main wood products exporting countries in Europe. For France B. Cinotti provides the context to consider modelling the forestry sector and A. Barkaoui specified and estimates a simple supply/dmand model proving the possibiliy to developp such modelling with existing statistics.

ABSTRACT In this special issue, a sample of the papers presented and discussions held are provided. The selected articles are partly presented in the context of the cost–benefit analysis of forests investments. Public budgeting process nowadays requires in most countries a thorough economic analysis of the annual projects and programmes. Forestry institutions are no exception. However, in the public arena and international organisations, the records of appropriate cost–benefit of forestry projects are scant. A recent review of the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) by the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank which spread the use of CBA to justify development projects, shows that the economic analysis of projects has been diminishing compared to their uses in the 70s. For natural resources, and forestry in particular, the presence of recognised positive externalities seems to have diminished the reason to undertake this analysis. In the context of budgeting constraints encountered by many countries following the 2008 financial crisis, the need for a proper analysis of natural resources investments has been made more acute.

Environmentally sustainable development's final aim is to bring a better quality of life for all time. To reach that objective, some economists see man-made capital as the main constraining factor for economic growth. Others argue that such a unidirectional search for growth will not bring economic development since natural capital is the main constraint to long- term growth. A reconciliatory position is proposed in this paper by which the search for improved general welfare over time can only be pursued with consideration of the earth's sustainable capability to produce the resources we need and to absorb the waste we generate. Once the sustainability constraints are set, a benefit|cost framework is useful to establish development project priorities. To establish sustainability constraints requires changing mindsets, implementing new policies, both macro-economic and sectoral, and changing and creating new laws and institutions, among other challenging tasks. As all these reforms are complex and cannot always be implemented quickly and efficiently, project appraisal has an important role to play in attaining incrementally a stage of sustainable development. The basic principle underlying appraisal of projects which have an important environmental dimension remains the same, once the right policies have been established. Some important additional considerations are supplementary streams of environmental inputs and outputs for which there may be inappropriate or no market prices and which should be valued indirectly, duly calculating user costs in both cases, a discount rate encompassing both the opportunity cost of capital and society's rate of time preference, and a different analysis of uncertainty which embodies the irreversibilities and discontinuities inherent in ecosystems. Projects need to be monitored carefully and be the object of homeostatic feedbacks similar to those encountered in natural ecosystems, if they are to fit in a strategy of sustainable development. Following this approach of appraisal and monitoring projects once an appropriate policy framework has been set in place, development banks are attempting to translate the concept of sustainability into economic development incrementally, project by project.

Owners of 10 or more contiguous acres of forest land in Massachusetts are eligible to classify their property under a modified assessment-yield tax property tax law. This program is designed to increase the flow of timber products by decreasing the costs of engaging in a program of forest management. In return for lower annual property taxes the owner must practise forest management and pay a yield tax.Benefit-cost ratios, using two marginal analysis decision frameworks, were calculated to evaluate the economic efficiency of this program. The two decision frameworks yielded different results and, therefore, different conclusions about the efficiency of this tax incentive program. Key words: Special forest tax law, yield tax, benefit-cost analysis.

Previous research has shown that forest recreation activities are characterized by high income level participants. If planners introduce an income distribution dimension in the evaluation of recreation benefits, this inequity could be corrected. A straightforward method of weighting benefits is presented here. The travel cost method is used to derive consumer surplus for a recreational site for two different income categories. The weighting scheme is then applied to the consumer surplus calculations to arrive at revised measures of recreation benefits.

In this article, we use two formats of contingent valuation (CV) questions to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) for maintaining biodiversity in forests: the dichotomous choice (DC) or referendum format and the open-ended (OE) question. A large population of French ...