LOJK10282U Applied Economics of Forest and Nature

Volume 2013/2014
Education
MSc Programme in Agriculture
MSc Programme in Forest Ecosystems, Nature and Society SUFONAMA
MSc Programme in Forest and Nature Management
MSc Programme in Forests and Livelihoods SUTROFOR
Content
Introduction to general economics of biological production and capital investment.

Production economics and investment theory of forests and natural resources:

Fundamentals of forest and nature economics; interest, depreciation and opportunity cost; costs, returns, optimal rotation age in timber production and including amenity values; valuing forestland under the risk of hazards to crop survival; forest economics under uncertainty; The economics of continuous cover forestry (close-to-nature forestry).

Applied economic analysis as a management tool, including cases from relevant enterprises in the forest and nature based sector.

Welfare economic aspects of forests and natural resources:

Economic evaluation of non-marketed goods and services and its use in CBA

Regulation and taxation of forests and natural resources.

Learning Outcome
Learning outcome
The course aims at imparting to the students a thorough understanding of economic reasoning and knowledge of how to apply economics as a tool for decision-making on the utilisation of forests and other (renewable) natural resources in rural and urban environments.

When the course is finished, it is expected that the student can/have:

Knowledge:
Describe principles and procedures of forest and natural resource economics
Identify links between the ecological processes and the economic consequences and human goals
Understand and reflect on economic perspectives of long vs short term management decisions
Understand the economic value of different aspects in multiple-use forest and nature management and their possible conflicts or joint production possibilities
Classify and reflect on principles from the theory
Understand the principles of economic valuation of non-marketed goods
Show overview of socio-economic analysis of forest and nature goods

Skills:
Economically apply and analyse theoretical and practical models for forest and nature management
Apply the appropriate theory and methods to relevant economic valuation in forest and nature management
Asses the possibilities and limitations of economic theories and methodologies related to forest and nature management
Understand and reflect critically on socio-economic analyses of forest and nature
Apply economic theory to analyse and model the welfare and business economic values of forests and natural resources

Competences:
Apply principles and procedures of forest and natural resource economics to management decisions, including transferring principles of the economic valuation from one kind of good to another
Evaluate economically different goods and services from the same natural resource and identify possible joint production possibilities or economic conflicts
Discuss the relevance, reliability and validity of different natural resource economic methods
Evaluate socio-economic analysis of forest and nature goods, including distributional effects
Take into account the demands of society when applying bioeconomic models in order to evaluate projects economically

Literature
Various notes.
Supplementary readings:
For the basics: Wagner (2012): Forestry Economics, a managerial approach. Routledge
For the advanced: Amacher, Ollikainen, Koskela (2009): Economics of Forest Resources. MIT press
LOJB10225 Indledende økonomi
LNAB10015 Natur- og landskabspolitik
Or similar courses
Lectures, theoretical exercises, excursion
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 0,5
  • Excursions
  • 9
  • Lectures
  • 40
  • Preparation
  • 132,5
  • Theory exercises
  • 24
  • Total
  • 206,0
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 30 min mundlig eksamen
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Exam registration requirements
During exercises students will work with a series of assignments which will have to be delivered jointly before exam and accepted.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Re-exam
If 10 or fewer register for the reexamination the examination form will be oral.
Criteria for exam assesment
See learning outcome