The net economic benefits of recreation and timber production in selected New South Wales native forests.

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AbstractNet economic returns of the two main direct-use economic activities of forestry and tourism in selected New South Wales (NSW, Australia) native forests for the 1997/98 financial year are compared. The research analysis is based on 11 distinct sites of paired, contiguous or proximate native forests, under the management of either NSW State Forests or the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The sites are located in the three RFA regions in NSW and provide a geographically dispersed sample of native forests situated on the eastern seaboard of Australia. The logging revenue and management costs derived from selected native forests were calculated from disaggregated raw data supplied by State Forests of NSW. The economic value of recreation at selected national parks was determined by the analysis of on-site survey results, using the travel-cost method. For six of the 11 research sites, recreation confers higher economic benefits than timber production, inclusive of estimated error statistics. For the remaining sites, the magnitude of estimated variance in net economic values precludes the conclusive determination of site differentials. It is of note that there is a negative net value of logging at 12 of 17 state-forest sites. The magnitude of the estimated values for native-forest recreation established by this research challenges the conventional wisdom of the economic primacy of logging compared with alternative non-wood outputs. Modelling based on the research results indicates that the promotion of recreation in native state forests will maximize both the economic values of individual state forests and, in aggregate, the economic benefits accruing to society. In contrast, the failure to incorporate and account for the substantial value of native-forest recreation into the decision-making process breaches the codified National Forest Policy Statement of maximizing the economic benefits of native forests within an ecologically sustainable framework.