The Value of Urban Forests in Residential Land Use

The diversity of management types of urban forests in Zagreb area creates a need for their thorough valuation. That process is usually performed by applying the contingent valuation method. The official method for valuation of non-timber benefits of forests in Croatia is the professional assessment, which has no special provision for forests in and around urban areas. This paper gives an overview of urban forests benefits, valuation methods applied in Croatia and uses a hedonic pricing method application for urban forests in the Zagreb area; the objective is to motivate the use of new econometric methods of valuation in Croatia and to make a contribution to the possibility of revising the official professional assessment method.