2016 Volume 62 Issue 1 Pages 28-39
The public demand for forests and other natural resources was extended to both use and non-use values. Therefore, the beneficiaries of forest environmental services include not only the local residents but also ordinary citizens. This paper provides a review of previous studies on the public participation in the literature of forest economics, and research issues to incorporate public opinion into natural resource management using case studies of the public participation and beneficiary payment scheme. For the public participation, an empirical analysis of recreation management of the world heritage sites, Shiretoko and Mt. Fuji, suggests that it is important to consider public interests. For the beneficiary payment of Shiga afforestation public corporation and Kanagawa water source conservation tax, the flexible payment scheme is required to correspond with the variation of public demand. The supply side of a forestry sector takes priority over the demand side such as consumers and citizens for the previous forest policy. However, it is necessary for forest policy-makers to evaluate forest management from a point of view of citizens.
