An economic assessment of the influence of changed property rights on forest management

Shrift towards private ownership in forestry recourses in transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe promotes forest values and their development in diversified ways. In this paper, we provide a general equilibrium model assisting in estimation of forest management practices in the regional level by comparing different ownership structures and public policy measures. The model is applied for the county of Banská Bystrica in Slovakia. The results provide an integrated tool identifying possibilities to address strategic development at the regional level that relates to the improvement of local well-being and sustainability applicable in other regions with diversified forest ownership structure. The paper is based on research started during the authors visit at the The Abdus Salam -International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Financial support from the Environment Ecology Economy (EEE) programme is gratefully acknowledged.