The non-use benefits of enhancing forest biodiversity: A contingent ranking study

Until recently, the majority of commercial forestry in the UK has comprised blanket planting of non-native coniferous species which typically do not offer a high level of biodiversity. However, the UK government, and consequently the UK Forestry Commission, are committed under various international agreements to conserve and enhance biodiversity in British forests. The study reported in this paper estimates that substantial non-use values would be generated if the Forestry Commission were to continue in its current efforts to develop management practices that promote an increase in biodiversity across a large area of its commercial holdings in remote parts of the country which are seldom visited. Rather than adopting a referendum-type contingent valuation method, a discrete-choice contingent ranking approach is used to estimate the general public's willingness to pay to increase the area of these forests managed under each of three forest management standards designed to offer increasing levels of biodiversity at the expense of commercial timber production. This permits relative preferences for different forest management standards to be measured at the same time as willingness to pay to enhance biodiversity.