Question from Twitter user '@Ruukel' (Aivar Ruukel):
"Hi! I am looking for research reports, case studies, that has compared the economic benefit of forest industry vs. tourism"
Ecosystems:
Woodland and forest
Topics:
Benefits
Cultural service
Methods:
Valuation: monetary
Valuation: non-monetary
Valuation: socio cultural
Comments
#1
This paper and its references should be partially relevant:
'Ecosystem Services and Opportunity Costs Shift Spatial Priorities for Conserving Forest Biodiversity' (link opens in a new window)
Kind regards,
David
#2
Hello,
This paper addresses this question from the point of view of the spatial overlap between the capacity of forest in a region in Norway to generate provisioning services and recreation potential (the trade-off also includes other ecosystem services and BD conservation). It may be of some use.
Ecosystem Services and Opportunity Costs Shift Spatial Priorities for Conserving Forest Biodiversity
All the best,
Graciela
#3
Hi,
The question seems to imply that forest industry and tourism are inevitably in conflict, which is not necessarily true - or at least, it's quite possible to manage woodlands for multiple objectives, including recreation/tourism, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and other benefits (e.g. water quality, flood control, health) alongside commercial timber extraction. This is what the Forestry Commission in the UK seeks to do, and there's a good body of research in this area, though still a lot to do.
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/eng-pfe-econmicresearch-final.pdf/$FILE/eng-pfe-econmicresearch-final.pdf
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/eftec_WCC_Co-benefits_Final_Report_15Nov2016.pdf/$FILE/eftec_WCC_Co-benefits_Final_Report_15Nov2016.pdf
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/VES_FinalReport_eftec_Oct2011.pdf/$FILE/VES_FinalReport_eftec_Oct2011.pdf
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/PDF/FCRN020.pdf/$FILE/FCRN020.pdf
Different values of woodlands have been incorporated in land use / land cover models such as TIM (The Integrated Model) by Bateman et al. - see Bateman, I., Day, B., Agarwala, M., Bacon, P., Baďura, T., Binner, A., De-Gol, A., Ditchburn, B., Dugdale, S., Emmett, B., Ferrini,S., Carlo Fezzi, C., Harwood, A., Hillier, J., Hiscock, K., Hulme, M., Jackson, B., Lovett, A., Mackie, E., Matthews, R., Sen, A., Siriwardena, G., Smith, P., Snowdon, P., Sünnenberg, G., Vetter, S., & Vinjili, S. (2014) UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on. Work Package Report 3: Economic value of ecosystem services. UNEP-WCMC, LWEC, UK. http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=1n4oolhlksY%3D&tabid=82
also Bateman, I., Agarwala, M., Binner, A., Coombes, E., Day, B., Ferrini, S., ... & Posen, P. (2016). Spatially explicit integrated modeling and economic valuation of climate driven land use change and its indirect effects. Journal of Environmental Management, 181, 172-184
See also recent developments in the Outdoor Recreation Valuation tool (ORVal) http://leep.exeter.ac.uk/orval/
Hope this is useful,
Rob
#4
Hello,
Interesting question.
This is not my core expertise and I am not aware of such research. However, I would like to comment that it might be challenging to draw proper system boundaries. There are no statistics on forest-based tourism. And the economic benefits for the forest industry are no longer fully captured by statistics from the forest sector, as many jobs etc. have been outsourced and are no longer shown as jobs in the industry. However, many such jobs in the service sector would still be depending on the forest industry.
I could consult some colleagues who have worked on forest recreational use and who might know some regional example studies.
br/Marcus