The Economic Values of South East Asia's Forest : A Meta-Regression Analysis

South East Asia’s forests are not only important for global carbon storage and biodiversity conservation but also for the local socio-economy. Forest management decisions require information about the economic values of the forest ecosystem services, relating to matters of human welfare and environmental sustainability. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of forest valuation from Southeast Asian countries through meta-analysis. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the main factors determining the values of South East Asia’s forests. Our results suggest that South East Asia’s forests are normal goods. Plantation forests are more valuable than other forests; and forests protecting against storms, floods and erosion as well as those contributing to timber production are more valuable than those used for biodiversity repositories. Meanwhile, forests contributing to food production and nutrient cycling are valued even lower than the biodiversity repositories. The values of South East Asia’s forests present geographical distribution differences that decrease with increasing latitude. Policy directed towards more strictly protected areas in a country lead to a greater awareness of environmental protection throughout the society