Assessing the social efficiency of temperate-zone commercial forestry programmes: Ireland as a case study

This paper attempts to contribute to the forestry valuation literature by providing a template for executing ex ante cost-benefit analyses of large-scale temperate plantation forestry programmes, taking the Irish Government's Forestry Plan as an example. An ex ante assessment of the social efficiency of the Plan is undertaken and, in doing so, a range of externalities is examined using, inter alia, contingent valuation and production function approaches. The appropriate magnitude of subvention of the Plan is also examined. The study demonstrates how large-scale forestry programmes and their external effects, both positive and negative, can be evaluated. In so doing, it provides insights into the methodological difficulties and solutions for assessing the social efficiency of large-scale environmental projects and the appropriate level of their subsidisation. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.