Forest Ecosystem Services As Production Inputs

Abstract

Are we cutting down tropical forests too rapidly and too extensively? If so, why? Answers to both questions are obscured in some ways by insufficient and unreliable data on the economic worth of forest ecosystem services. It is clear, however, that rapid, excessive cutting of forests can irreversibly and substantively impair ecosystem functions, thereby endangering the flow of several socially valuable goods and services from standing forests. One reason for such excessive deforestation is failure to consider the full range of goods and services provided by the forests, particularly latent and complex ecosystem services.

Citation

Pattanayak, Subhrendu; Butry, David T. 2003. Forest Ecosystem Services As Production Inputs. In: Sills, Erin O.; Abt, Karen Lee, eds. Forests in a market economy. 2003. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 361-378.