Costs and value of forest legislation

NYLUND, J.E.; GOWDA, J.H.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XIII WFC/XIII CFM; 2009

FAO - SAGPyA

All legislation that regulates the use of land will affect the relative value of different practices for the private owner. Regulation of the use of forest land may have long-term effects that are difficult to predict since it not only leads to changes in forest practices but also may cause replacement of forests by other forms of land use such as livestock keeping, agriculture of real estate development. In this article, we propose a simple framework for evaluating the potential efficiency of a given forest legislation based on its likely effect on the value of the forest resource to the land owner, based on the concepts of intrinsic (total) and relative (difference between intrinsic value and value of alternative uses of the land) value of the forest. We suggest that conservation-oriented legislation alone tends to reduce the relative value of forest to the owner, and therefore may be inefficient and hard to enforce. In countries with a developed forest sector, laws aiming at developing the long-term forest value under sustainable management favour an increase of the intrinsic value, and therefore will be more efficient in protecting the forest. The total package of conservation and production oriented legislation may lead to increased relative values as well, and therefore have a greater chance of being successful. -  The real challenge is at hand in places, where a previously unmanaged timber resource offers opportunities of quick returns from unsustainable exploitation. This may explain why so many countries have experienced deforestation before the forest area has started to increase. Under such conditions legislation must be accompanied by technological and promotional packages making sustainable manage possible, while ensuring economic returns to the forest owner and the local communities. We use the forest legislation of various Latin-American and European countries as examples for rules that influence the intrinsic and relative value of forest management.