Environmental economics for sustainable forest management

Environmental economics is not different from economics or forest economics but considers more thoroughly all the environmental and also social impacts of the decisions at hand. Environmental economics is concerned with all the sectors of the economy and as such is not much different from the new and broader concept underlying forestry economics as it has evolved in Europe. This paper proposes a general framework for co-ordinating and organizing environmental and forest economics research activities in the form of a network of 'environment economists for sustainable development'. Its main objective would be to organize information, at both the micro and macroeconomic levels, needed for forestry resources decisions. The motivation behind this effort is to help showing where and how a particular research effort increases knowledge that overall could improve the decision- and policy-making processes. It could help also in coordinating research in forestry economics for sustainable management in Europe and elsewhere.