Die Allokation der Waldbetretung, ein Beispiel für das Problem gesellschaftlicher Kosten (Essay)

Abstract

The allocation of rights of access to forests as an example of the problem of social cost (essay) This paper analyses the allocation of rights of access to forests in Switzerland. The starting point is the fact that free access to forests, such as is seen in Switzerland, is leading to an increase in the use of forests for recreation and subsequent competition with other rights of forest use. A four-stage analysis is implemented in this paper. In the first stage, the well-known farmer-rancher-approach proposed by Coase is applied in order to explain the conflict of use between the two groups, recreational forest users and forest owners. In the second stage, the number of conflicts of use is multiplied by dividing the recreational forest users into subgroups and adding further user groups, such as hunters or nature conservationists. The observed conflicts of use and the solutions with regard to rights of access to forests are very diverse, specific and subject to spatial variability. Since all solutions incur transaction costs, these are the focus of the third stage of the paper. The cost of political and bureaucratic coordination is given special consideration, since this is where Buchanan says the allocation of transaction costs takes on a special dimension, namely, the gradual loss of individual rights, caused by the growth of bureaucracy and politically motivated interests. Thus, the fourth and final stage suggests stronger use of civil law options in solving conflicts of use involving access to forests, since civil law is based on historic and evolutionary rules of just conduct. These rules, in which private and public property is managed by associations, have evolved over a long period of time and are strongly anchored in the common heritage of Swiss society.