CAN NONMARKET VALUES BE USED AS INDICATORS OF FOREST SUSTAINABILITY

A distinction is made between the economic benefits of recent BC fores t policies and their income distributional consequences. Changes in em ployment and tourism are examples of the latter, while economic surplu ses accruing to recreationists and citizens as passive-use values are an important form of economic benefits. Recent controversies about the contingent valuation method for detemining passive-use values are rev iewed, as are estimates of the values residents attach to the protecti on of forest amenities in BC. It is argued that constantly updated est imates of annual nonmarket values can be used as an economic indicator of forest sustainability, to be compared against the sustainable rent from logging operations.