Journal of Forest Economics > Vol 37 > Issue 4

Wildlife Management in the Presence of Predation and Damage Costs

Anders Skonhoft, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, anders.skonhoft@ntnu.no
 
Suggested Citation
Anders Skonhoft (2022), "Wildlife Management in the Presence of Predation and Damage Costs", Journal of Forest Economics: Vol. 37: No. 4, pp 437-454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/112.00000558

Publication Date: 31 Oct 2022
© 2022 A. Skonhoft
 
Subjects
 
Keywords
Predationbrowsing damage costsage-structured modelMEY management
 

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In this article:
1. Introduction 
2. The Bioeconomic Model 
3. The Static MEY Problem 
4. The Dynamic MEY Problem 
5. Numerical Illustration 
6. Timing of the Events over the Year Cycle 
7. Concluding Remarks 
References 

Abstract

In this paper a simple age-structured model is constructed to analyze how a wildlife population creating hunting value, but also damage costs, is influenced by predation. The model may exemplify a moose population causing forest browsing damage and exposed for predation by wolf or other big carnivores within a Scandinavian institutional setting. However, it can also fit to other ecological and institutional settings as in North America and other parts of Europe. Two age classes of the prey population, immature and mature animals, are included. The paper provides several results, including a characterizing of the optimal harvesting scheme, and how the harvest and stock composition are influenced by damage costs. It is also shown how the damage costs influence the economic loss of predation. The paper also demonstrates that these results may be rather sensitive to certain conditions, including the timing of the events (e.g., damage costs and predation) over the year cycle.

DOI:10.1561/112.00000558