Is there too much or too little natural forest in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica?

• Published in: Canadian journal of forest research Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 495 - 506
• Main Authors: Bulte, E.H, Joenje, M, Jansen, H.G.P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa, Canada NRC Research Press 01.03.2000; National Research Council of Canada; Canadian Science Publishing NRC Research Press
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; BOSQUE TROPICAL HUMEDO; CARBON SEQUESTRATION; COSTA RICA; DEBOISEMENT; DEFORESTACION; DEFORESTATION; Development Economics; Development Economics Group; ESTIMACION; FOREST ECONOMICS; Forest management; Forest management. Stand types and stand dynamics. Silvicultural treatments. Tending of stands. Natural regeneration; FOREST RESOURCES; Forestry; FORET TROPICALE HUMIDE; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Leerstoelgroep Ontwikkelingseconomie; MGS; Ontwikkelingseconomie; RECURSOS FORESTALES; RESSOURCE FORESTIERE; TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS; VALEUR D'ESTIMATION; VALUATION; Central America; America; Costa Rica; Deforestation; Environmental policy; Rain forest; Tropical zone; Forest planning; Forest management; Tropical rain forest; Economic aspect; Primary forest; Optimization; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 0045-5067; 1208-6037
• DOI: 10.1139/x99-225

Deforestation rates in developing countries are often regarded as excessive, despite the lack of a satisfactory economic benchmark to evaluate this claim. This paper provides such a benchmark for a particular region in Costa Rica. The monetary value of the various functions performed by tropical rainforests is estimated and used in a conventional optimal control model to compute the globally optimal natural forest stock in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica. The results indicate that the current forest stock is suboptimally large, suggesting that promoting further forest conversion can increase economic welfare. The current stock would be near optimal only when (i) the annual benefits of carbon fixation are extremely high and (ii) the government of Costa Rica would be fully compensated for this positive externality.