We study the economic impact of the viral disease AVG, its stochastic transmission across abalone reefs in southern Australia, and the optimal management response as AVG approaches an uninfected reef. Using conservative estimates of the virulence and mortality rates associated with the disease,...

This paper provides an overview of the role that forestry activities play in mitigating climate change. The emphasis is on a comparison of carbon offset credits and a carbon tax/subsidy scheme for incentivizing reductions in the release of CO2 emissions and increase in sequestration of...

Wildfires in British Columbia result not only in large direct damages, but also significant indirect losses associated with lost amenity values and the risk to life and property. The indirect values can potentially be measured by changes in property values. In this study, we assume that the...

Two count models are estimated in this analysis to explain the occurrence of wildfire and area burned by wildfire in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. The main explanatory variable is the 4-month lagged El Niño 1&2 index, which is found to have a strong positive influence on wildfire in...

The pine forest of British Columbia is undergoing its largest recorded pest epidemic. The damage caused by native mountain pine beetle creates difficulties for the public owner of the resource, which is interested in protecting future timber supply while salvaging dead and dying pine. This paper...

We extend an earlier bioeconomic model of optimal duck harvest and wetland retention in the Prairie Pothole Region of Western Canada to include cropping decisions. Instead of a single state equation, the model has two state equations representing the population dynamics of ducks and the amount...

From a cost standpoint and as demonstrated in this paper, it is beneficial to permit forest-sector carbon offsets in lieu of carbon dioxide emissions reduction. Such offsets play a role in voluntary markets and Europe’s Emission Trading System. However, problems related to additionality,...

Energy has been produced from woody biomass in British Columbia for many decades, but it was used primarily within the pulp and paper sector, using residual streams from timber processing, to create heat and electricity for on-site use. More recently, there has been limited stand-alone...

Activities that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in forest and agricultural ecosystems can generate CO2-offset credits that can thus substitute for CO2 emissions reduction. Are biological CO2-uptake activities competitive with CO2 offsets from reduced fossil fuel use? In this paper,...

Scientists are enthusiastic about storing carbon in terrestrial sinks and geological reservoirs in order to obviate the need for lifestyle-changing reductions in fossil-fuel use. Estimating relative costs of various options depends on how permanence is assessed and whether physical carbon is...