Ecological–economic model for optimal mangrove trade off between forestry and fishery production: comparing a dynamic optimization and a simulation model

Mangrove ecosystems provide valuable ecological services for the maintenance of the adjacent habitats and wildlife preservation. They also provide a highly caloric timber, used frequently for burning purposes as, e.g. charcoal. The forestry activity usually ignores the capacity of the mangroves to support the local fisheries. Therefore, it is necessary to study the relationship between these activities and how they could be managed in order to maximize their benefits, and at the same time to preserve ecosystem services. This problem was approached by two different modelling procedures, widely used in natural resources management studies: a dynamic optimization and a simulation model. The dynamic optimization model gave us some hints about the best allocation of workers between forestry and fishery sectors. Using the simulation model it was possible to take the data generated and employ it in our first order conditions equations from the optimization model to find the shadow prices for the resources stocks. The most important variable in the simulation is the forest growth rate, since the fishery production is directly dependent on the area of mangrove forest.