# A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Alternative Management Strategies for Red Deer in Denmark

## TL;DR

The paper compares different management strategies for red deer in Denmark to determine which provides the best balance of costs and benefits.

## Contribution

This study introduces a detailed cost-benefit analysis using a biological population model to evaluate red deer management strategies.

## Key findings

- Maximum harvest strategy yields a high positive net benefit.
- Trophy hunting results in a high negative net benefit.
- Natural demographic strategies lead to small negative net benefits.

## Abstract

In this paper, we conduct a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of five alternative management strategies for red deer in Denmark: free harvest, trophy hunting, maximum harvest and two cases for natural demographic population compositions. To capture the outcome under each strategy we use a biological sex- and age-structured population model. The net benefit function includes meat values, recreational values, browsing damage costs and traffic damage costs and these values and costs are assumed to differ for the various sex and age classes of red deer. We show that the maximum harvest strategy leads to a reasonably high positive total net benefit, while the free harvest strategy yields a small positive net benefit. On the other hand, the trophy hunting strategy generates a high negative net benefit, while small negative net benefits are obtained under the two strategies for natural demographic population compositions.