Economic Evaluation

Forests serve more than just timber production. They provide forest owners and society with a wide range of additional ecosystem services, including recreation, landscape aesthetics, climate regulation, water supply, and nature conservation. As most of these services are considered public goods, their monetary value is not reflected in market prices. However, this value can be determined using specialised methods from environmental economics.

For over 30 years, our institute has been studying such environmental values, making it one of the first institutions in Germany to do so. At present, we have integrated four different ecosystem services — raw timber production, climate protection, recreation, and nature conservation — into a single model that shows the value of these services with regional differentiation and can also simulate the effects of changes in forest management. This model is currently being expanded to include the value of drinking water provision, and its data base is periodically updated.

With the help of such a model, policymakers can, for instance, tailor subsidies to the regionally varying demand for ecosystem services. In addition, we are also developing practical proposals for how these services can be made financially worthwhile for forest owners ("Payments for Ecosystem Services"). This work is complemented by analyses of societal expectations placed on forests, as reflected in legislation and political decisions.