For the first time the newly instituted prize will be awarded. The price was instituted in honour of its founder, Sören Wibe and is awarded biennially to one article published in the Journal of Forest Economics during the two last years. The prize winner is selected by an independent international committee consisting of three experts within the field. This time the committee comprised of Sashi Kant, University of Toronto, Jari Kuuluvainen, University of Helsinki, and David Newman, State University of New York. The prize winners will receive a cash amount of € 2 000, and will give a prize lecture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at SLU in Umeå on December 4. Thanks to the support of Sören Wibe's family, and the Journal publisher Elsevier, this award has become possible.

This years prize, which is the first, is awarded to Christopher C. Moore, Thomas P. Holmes and Kathleen P. Bell for their article " An attribute-based approach to contingent valuation of forest protection programs" Journal of Forest Economics 17 (2011): 35-52. One of the key questions in the study was what citizens prefer when it comes to ecologically valuable sites versus recreational sites (human-use). The study shows, interestingly, that people is willing to give "substantial support" to programs that protect ecological sites, despite that they are difficult for visitors to access. Christopher Moore is from the National Center for Environmental Economics, US Environmental Protection Agency, Thomas Holmes from the Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, and Kathleen Bell is from the School of Economics, University of Maine.

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