Economic impact of forest disturbances – a literature review

With this literature review, we aim to present and discuss the main research questions and analyses related to the economic impact of forest disturbances. To this end, we have conducted a content analysis of review papers. From an economic perspective, forest disturbance can be defined as an event that interrupts or impedes the flow of human-desired goods and services provided by forest ecosystems. Disturbances affect the dysregulation of processes not only in the forest ecosystem, but also in its social, economic and institutional environment. Our review shows that foresters’ actions should aim to monitore the nature, frequency and extent of disturbances, choose an appropriate method for analysing the economic consequences of disturbances, develop scenarios for the effective elimination of their impacts, design strategies to minimise the risk of their occurrence through a gradual implementation taking into account the urgency of adaptation measures, and innovatively eliminate risks in economic practise that can disrupt the value streams of forest management, including the flow of wood raw materials. Among the topics discussed, one issue was raised that is unique to private forests, namely the conditions for the development of the forest insurance market. Recent literature addresses the following issues related to forest disturbances: (1) the dynamics of disturbances in Europe since 1950, based on data from the EFI database; (2) the direction of economic analyses of forest disturbances; (3) the evaluation of the usefulness of four economic models used to assess the impact of disturbances; (4) the economic consequences of disturbances for forest management, illustrated by the results of empirical studies showing the increase in the cost of timber harvesting and the reduction in the quality (market value) of timber from forest areas where disturbances have occurred; (5) the complexity of the impact of disturbances on the social, economic and institutional environment of the forest sector; (6) different strategies to reduce the risk of disturbance; (7) possible directions of adaptation measures and innovations that represent ways to limit the economic consequences of disturbances in the forest; and (8) forest insurance as a possible solution for private forest owners. The results of the analysis suggest that forest insurance can be an effective tool to mitigate the economic consequences of disturbances that occur. The publication addresses the above-mentioned topics on the basis of a content analysis of nine publications.