Seeing the trees as a forest: what counts in green accounting

Applying ‘green’ accounting to value the commercial contribution and depletion of a forest is only a short-run variation of the traditional approach to net national product (NNP) and arguably provides less information. Green adjustments can make a vital difference, however, by introducing nonmarketed values. Since optimal NNP is the linearized Hamiltonian, values are taken at the margin and exclude consumers’ surpluses, unlike in cost–benefit analysis. Green NNP may also require imputation of unmarketed exports and imports. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.