A note on benefits and costs of adjusting forestry to meet recreational demands

Economic studies concerning environmental functions of forests are often partial in the sense that they focus on either benefits or costs. In other words, benefit/cost analyses indicating whether it is economically motivated to change forestry to make it compatible with environmental demands are relatively rare. This benefit/cost analysis deals with the forest as recreation environment, where benefit estimates from a study conducted in the county of Västerbotten, Sweden, are compared with cost estimates from another study in the same county. It is shown that adjustments of forest management to meet recreational demands do largely affect both benefits and costs, and that the results are sensitive to how soon the effects on the recreation environment occur after the adjustments of forest management.