Economic Valuation of Forest Fire Prevention Programme in Catalonia, NE Spain

MAVSAR, ROBERT; FARRERAS, VERÓNICA

Modelling, Valuing and Managing Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems for Non-Timber Goods and Services

European Forest Institute

Lugar: Joensuu, Finlandia; Año: 2009; p. 165 - 174

In Catalonia forest fires have an important environmental, economical and social impact. Due to some extreme fire sessions in the past decade, the problems of forest fires have attracted significant attention in the media and amongst policy makers, leading to an increasing public concern. In the present study the welfare effect of the implementation of a program of additional forest fire prevention measures is estimated. The proposed program would diminish the average area of forests burnt per year and the severity of forest fires, expressed by tree mortality. A contingent choice method was applied to elicit the marginal values of two forest fire impact attributes (area burnt and dead trees). In addition, the respondents were also able to select the preferred prevention type, by selecting whether the majority of the work would be done by prescribed burning or physical fuel reduction. The implications of the present study may be of interest for policy makers to support decision-making on fire prevention programs considering social preferences.