Optimal public harvesting under the interdependence of public and private forests

This article studies the design of optimal public harvesting in an economy with multiple-use forestry and private timber supply, where amenity service s of public forests are public goods but, depending on access restrictions, those of private forests may or may not be, Public and private forest stan ds are assumed to be either substitutes, independents, or complements in th e valuation of amenity services, and public and private forests are perfect substitutes as factors of production in forest industry, Under exogenous t imber prices and free access, public harvesting should be used only if the marginal willingness to pay to forego public harvesting is sufficiently les s than that of private harvesting. Public harvesting with no access reduces to a situation where private and public forests are independents under fre e access. Allowing for endogenous timber prices with free access increases the desirability of public harvesting, while having no impact under no acce ss. Public harvesting should be set to equate the marginal costs of public harvesting corrected for the change in private timber supply and its margin al benefits due to price changes.