MONETARY VALUATION OF FOREST DAMAGE - AN UNIFIED APPROACH

Appraisal of forest damage is an essential element of many ecological decisions. It is also an instrument to regulate everyday life in agrarian countryside. E.g. in Central Europe, damage valuation is the most common task of forest valuation. Forests are rarely sold, but in the woods happen all the time things that are compensated in money. Based on the theory of income value, a formal approach to evaluation of forest damage is proposed. The damage scope can reach from single trees to whole stands. All known kinds of forest damage are covered in a systematic way: browsing by game or cattle, bark damage by animals of forest harvest, forest fire, industrial smoke, draining, compulsory forest harvest, illegal cutting etc. Practical application is based on growth and yield tables, basic prices and inventory data. Preconditions, transparency, acceptance, and plausibility are discussed. The approach involves single tree evaluation. A derivation of a known single tree valuation formula usually considered a proxy is proposed.