Notes of "Sharing the Benefits and Costs of Forest Conservation"

^* This paper was presented at the 22nd Pacific Trade and Development Conference in Ottawa, Canada, held from September 8-9, 1995.

^** Dr. Mingsarn is the Program Director of TDRI's Natural Resources and Environment Program.

¹ A more sophisticated argument refers to the thermodynamic law of entropy. "In entropy terms, the cost of any economic enterprise is always greater than the product" (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971). As the global endowment of nature is finite, expansion of economic activity is inevitably against the interests of future generations.

² Despite its usefulness, the contingent valuation method is controversial (see, for example, Diamond and Hausman, 1994; Portney 1994; and Hanemand, 1994).

³ It should be noted that the term 'forests' in this paper refers to natural forests. Man-made forests are referred to as 'plantations.' While natural forests offer a wide range of services, man-made forests or tree farms offer less biodiversity. Plantations, however, provide effective carbon sequestration.