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Abstract
Forest products are important to rural households across virtually all
forest types in developing countries. There are, however, only few
comprehensive and systematic efforts at valuing these products and
determining their absolute and relative economic importance to rural
households. Having used the novel income survey approach developed by
the global Poverty and Environment Network (PEN), this paper presents
methodological experiences with forest product valuation in lowland
Bolivia. Household (n = 118) data was collected in six communities in the
Tropics of Cochabamba from February 2006 to January 2007. Households
used a large number of products, including 151 forest and non-forest
environmental products. Valuing all these products was time consuming but
possible using the households’ own-reported values. Even for non-traded
products useful values can be estimated. Generally, using household ownreported
estimates result in aggregate unit values with satisfactory
properties.