Abstract
The paper focuses on review and discussion of current developments in economic valuation and its use in forestry and environmental policy. First the context for valuation in environmental sphere is briefly described.
Second the methodological and transferability caveats in non-market valuation are discussed. The third part deals with use of valuation in European environmental and forestry policy, especially in context of payments for ecosystem services and environmental damage liability.
In the next section an overview of limited use of monetary valuation in Czech forestry and environmental policy is reviewed with a mention of rather odd application in criminal law. The fifth part reviews state-of-the art in the valuation of forestry services in the Czech Republic and discusses inconsistency of the methods used with welfare economics and also arbitrary setting of importance of particular forest functions.
The final part concludes with summing up some future prospects.