Encouraging Michigan’s Forest EconomyMarket and Policy Options

Jason Hayes, Director Environmental PolicyMackinac Center for Public Policy

Advancing liberty and opportunity for all peoplethrough research and education.

Free Market Environmentalism• Harness market forces• Improve environmental

quality

• Recognize the value of• Individual decision making• Private property rights• Voluntary trade

Source: PERC.org

Political Environmentalism • Perception of value -marginal costs vs. marginal benefits is often determined by what hat you wear

Source: perc.org, pexels.com, NPS.gov, wildandscenicfilmfestival.org, Unsplash.com

Political Environmentalism• Settle land/water use

disputes with laws, regulations, litigation

• You want to hike / I want to hunt• “There oughta be a law!”• Regulate or litigate• I win, you lose

Source: economist.com

We want the maximum good per person; but what is good?To one person it is wilderness, to another it is ski lodges for thousands. To

one it is estuaries to nourish ducks for hunters to shoot;to another it is factory land.

Comparing one good with another is, we usually say, impossible because goods are incommensurable. Incommensurables cannot be compared.

—Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the CommonsSource: pexels.com

Source: pexels.com

So, how to create the “maximum good”?

Two key principles infree-market environmentalism

1. Wealth helps2. Incentives matter

Source: bizarro.com

Sustained economic growth requires innovation, and innovation cannot be decoupled from creative destruction, which replaces the old with the new in the economic realm and also destabilizes established power relations in politics.

Daron Acemoglu and James RobinsonWhy Nations Fail

Source: Pexels.com

Some old ideas are still essential for success• Secure access to affordable raw materials• Realistic regulation

Promoting the forest bioeconomy• Collaboration – information-sharing• Third Party Certifications• Competition• Education of customer base / accurate science• Consumer involvement & demand

Source: Pexels.com

Public lands / National ForestsPrivate Conservation Working Group

Jason HayesDirector of Environmental PolicyThe Mackinac Center for Public Policyhttp://www.mackinac.org989-631-0900