AN INVENTORY-BASED PROCEDURE TO ESTIMATE ECONOMIC COSTS OF FOREST MANAGEMENT ON A REGIONAL-SCALE TO CONSERVE AND SEQUESTER ATMOSPHERIC CARBON

Estimation of the costs of managing forests to conserve and sequester atmospheric carbon is necessary to define the role of forests to mitig ate the onset of projected global climate change. The role of forests as both carbon pools and an element in the flux of atmospheric carbon dictate new requirements in estimating the costs of forest management to mitigate climate change. These requirements include recognition of the inventory as a capital stock in the estimation of the costs; the n eed to allow the integration of biological, social and economic consid erations across nations and regions; and the need to facilitate consid eration of the distributional impacts of forest policy alternatives. A n inventory-based procedure is presented to estimate forest management costs based on recognition of the opportunity costs of holding forest inventories. To demonstrate this procedure, the costs of four policy scenarios projected in the carbon budget of the United States are exam ined. Based on the demonstration, the inventory-based procedure is sho wn to meet the requirements for estimating forest management costs to conserve and sequester atmospheric carbon on a regional scale. The dem onstration also illustrates the potential of the procedure to provide insights into differences in costs associated with management of fores t ecosystems among geographic regions and forest policies.