HOW LARGE ARE THE BENEFITS?
One way to examine the economics of forest certification is to compute the breakeven price increase premium to pay for the costs of certification.
See spreadsheet for illustration.
Notes:
The Excel spreadsheet is meant to illustrate the incremental stumpage price premium needed to “breakeven.” That is, the additional stumpage price required to offset the incremental costs associated with certification. As can be seen, the the required price premium is most sensitive to the reduction in harvest volume required to gain certification.