Valuing New Forest Sites over Time: the Case of Afforestation and Recreation in Denmark

We estimate changes in the total recreative value over a 20 year time period of a large newly established forest, using mixed specification of a random utility models and geographic information system. The models are estimated using data from two identical surveys in 1977 and 1997. We conduct three different spatial value transfers and test these on the new forest. Results suggest that the new forest increased the recreative value nearly 70 times over the 20 years, primarily due the maturing of the forest and changed patterns of behaviour. The value transfer to the new forest range between an underestimate of 57% and an overestimate of 349%, depending on the sampling of the choice set used as study sites in the transfer.