Efficiency in forest management: A multiobjective harvest scheduling model

This paper presents a new forest harvest scheduling model taking into account four conflicting objectives. The economic factor of timber production is considered and also aspects related to environmental protection. We also incorporate adjacency constraints to limit the maximum contiguous area where clear-cutting can be applied. The model proposed is applied to a timber production plantation in Cuba located in the region of Pinar del Río. One factor to be taken into account in Cuban plantations is that the forest has a highly unbalanced age distribution. Therefore, in addition to the classical objectives of forest planning, we have the objective of rebalancing age distribution by the end of the planning horizon. Explicitly, the four objectives considered in the model are: (a) obtaining a balance-aged forest; (b) minimizing the area with trees older than the rotation age; (c) maximizing the NPV of the forest over the planning horizon; and (d) maximizing total carbon sequestration over the whole planning horizon. The solution to the proposed model provides a set of efficient management plans that are of assistance in analysing the tradeoffs between the economic and ecological objectives. The model is also applied to randomly generated simulated forests to compare its performance in other contexts. As the problem is a multiobjective binary nonlinear model, a metaheuristic procedure is used in order to solve it.     

Harvesting Choices and Timber Supply among Landowners in the Southern United States

The recent rise of institutional timberland ownership has led to a significant change in the structure and conduct of the timber industry in the United States. In this study, we apply a two‐period harvest model to assess the timber harvesting behavior of various landowners at the stand level by utilizing USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data for nine southern states. Forest industry and institutional timberland owners were found to be more likely to conduct partial and final harvests than nonindustrial private forest landowners. Aggregately, Timberland Investment Management Organizations were found to be most, and timberland Real Estate Investment Trusts to be least, price‐responsive among ownership groups.     

An assessment of the policies and practices of selective logging and timber utilisation: A case study from natural forests of Tarai Nepal and Queensland Australia

Selective logging (SL) contributes nearly 15 percent of the global timber needs. Considering its role in sustainable timber production, biodiversity conservation and forest carbon enhancement, assessment of SL policies and practices is crucial. This paper assesses the policies and practices of SL in natural production forests of the Tarai region of Nepal and Queensland Australia to explore the key differences in such policies and practices and their possible implications in achieving sustainable forest management objectives. The primary methods applied in the study were review and synthesis of key policy documents and qualitative analysis of the information gathered from key informant interviews and stakeholders’ workshop. Altogether, 53 respondents from a wide range of stakeholder groups (government organizations-15, non-government organizations/networks-15, private sector including the individual landowners-13, local political leaders-3 and independent forest experts/scientists-7) were consulted. Findings suggest that: (1) frequent and inconsistent changes in policy provisions, lengthy administrative procedures and heavy engagement of state forest agencies in forest product harvesting and sales processes play key roles in sub-optimal forest production in Nepal, whereas lower dependency on forest-products, higher labour costs, lack of species-wise royalty rate and flexibility in selecting optional logs are the key factors for increased wastages of forest products in Queensland; (2) recovery and utilisation of the harvested forest product is better in Nepal but policy and practical considerations on biodiversity and environment are better in Queensland; and (3) Forest harvesting specific codes of practice, occupational health and safety standards, and their compliance mechanism of Queensland could be beneficial for Nepal to minimise operational harvesting risks and to attract professional harvesters that support promoting sustainable use and management of natural forests, as we found this aspect almost neglected in Nepal.     

LAND TENURE IN THE CYPRESS PINE AREAS OF NORTH-WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES

In New South Wales there are one million acres of land bearing cypress pine and held under lease from the government. This land is suitable for the joint production of timber and livestock or for timber production alone. Alternatively, the timber can be harvested to provide capital for property development. Farm management plans have, however, been constrained by the land tenure policy which aims to promote both closer settlement and timber production. In this paper the opportunity costs of the current tenure system are evaluated against the freehold situation. The conditions which favour either specialized timber production or the joint production of timber and livestock are examined. Finally, the cost of achieving a timber production target is examined in terms of loss of income to the individual grazier and the nation.     

采伐限额制度下实现经济效益最大化问题的研究

分析采伐限额制度的合理性,在这个前提下,探讨如何获得经济收益的最大化。林业资源的经济收益取决于市场状况的同时也受到它本身特性的约束,这里市场状况包括总体用材林限额决定的供给量和整体市场的需求量,林业资源特性包括林业用地的限制、木材培育费用和木材的生长期限。通过将市场状况和林业资源本身特点的结合,得出在不同的情况下如何使用和分配用材林采伐限额,在单位内转结的有效性或者在单位间转让的可能性,以实现在采伐限额制度下取得林业资源经济收益最大化。     

论以林地资源管理为中心创新森林资源管理制度

森林资源包括森林生物资源、林地资源和森林环境资源,但林地资源是基础。森林资源管理必须以林地资源管理为中心。由于公益性森林资源作为公共物品其经营的主导利用目标是生态效益。因此,林政资源的管理要以林地资源管理为基础,林木与林地管理并重,严格森林资源的保护。而商品性森林资源经营的主导目标在于经营利润的最大化,应赋予经营者更灵活的处置林木的权力,资源管理以林地资源管理为主。     

Adaptive management decision of agroforestry under timber price risk

In an effort to increase wood production and mitigate environmental problems, agro-forestry practices have emerged as a viable strategy in the Northern Plains of China, where one popular form of the agro-forestry system consists of fast-growing and high-yield plantation of poplar (populus) trees and the underwood planting of button mushroom (Agaricus bisporous). This paper examines adaptive management decision-making with stochastic dynamic programming under risk of timber price. Under the assumption of risk neutral preferences of the investors, the results suggest that the reservation price strategy remains optimal for the harvesting decision of agro-forests: when the timber price is higher than the reservation price, poplar trees should be harvested to end agro-forestry; otherwise, the trees should be retained. Numerical results are presented for sample agro-forest stands, which show that, with underwood planting, the reservation price for timber harvesting will be higher than that in pure forest.     

Financial Analysis of Scale Versus Lump Sum Timber Sale Payment Methods

A financial analysis of two methods commonly used by public land management agencies to collect payment for stumpage sold was carried out using data from the St. Louis County Minerals and Land Department (SLCMLD) in northern Minnesota. The two payment methods evaluated were scale (also called pay-as-cut and consumer scale) where the buyer only pays for timber harvested and lump sum (also called sold-on-appraised-volume or SOAV) where a buyer pays for the entire tract’s estimated volume, regardless of the amount of timber actually harvested. The analysis found no significant difference in gross timber sale revenue collected by the SLCMLD under the two payment methods Scaled timber sales incurred an additional $323 in administrative costs per timber sale compared to lump sum timber sales. This increase in administrative costs represents less than 1% of the timber value contained in the average SLCMLD timber sale. Differences in the standards agencies use to estimate merchantable stand volume of a timber sale and the administrative time spent processing timber sales can impact the financial costs associated with each timber payment method.     

Consequences of carbon offset payments for the global forest sector

Long-term effects of policies to induce carbon storage in forests were projected with the Global Forest Products Model. Offset payments for carbon sequestered in forest biomass of $15–$50/t CO₂e applied in all countries increased CO₂ sequestration in world forests by 5–14 billion tons from 2009 to 2030. Limiting implementation to developed countries exported environmental damage from North to South, as developing countries harvested more, decreasing their stored CO₂e. Substantially more CO₂e was sequestered by allocating a given budget to all countries rather than to developed countries only. As offset payments increased wood prices relatively more than they decreased production, timber revenues generally increased. In the few countries with timber revenues losses they were more than compensated by the offset payments.     

中国国有用材林该如何经营——兼议“林木市场成熟论”的缺陷

首先阐述了森林经营理论以及中国国有林区森林经营的实际状况,分析了市场经济与林业宏观调控,然后着重对"林木市场成熟"理论进行质疑分析,指出在理论上的缺陷、采用"林木市场成熟"理论的不可行性、可能造成破坏森林的风险。同时,还对国有林区改革与"林木市场成熟"进行了分析。分析结果表明:慎用"林木市场成熟"理论。     

The effect of site quality on economically optimal stand management

This paper proposes a discrete-time type timber harvesting model for simultaneously determining (i) the optimal quantity of seedlings to be planted, (ii) the optimal quantities of timber harvested by thinnings, and (iii) the optimal rotation age. With the help of Microsoft Excel Solver, a generalized reduced gradient algorithm, numerical examples are developed to evaluate the impact of the variations in the quality level of a forest site on the optimal harvest strategy. It is shown that the level of optimal rotation age and optimal quantity of seedlings to be planted can individually exhibit non-monotonicity to the increase in site quality.     

Relationships between absenteeism,conservation group membership,and land management among family forest owners

Absentee landowners, or those who do not live on their forestland, own approximately 117 million acres of private forestland in the U.S. Thus, their land management decisions and activities influence the flow of forest-based goods and services. We explore the question of whether absentee family forest owners are less active land managers than resident landowners and whether membership in conservation organizations is associated with higher levels of land management activity by absentee owners. To examine these questions, we administered a mail survey to randomly-selected family forest landowners in Indiana. While we found some support for the contention that absentee owners are less active forestland managers than resident owners, we also found they are not necessarily inactive landowners. We found absentee owners were less likely to have: inspected their forestland for invasive plants, pulled or cut invasive plants, used herbicides to kill invasive plants, reduced fire hazard, or grazed livestock than resident owners. Absentee owners were more likely to be enrolled in the Indiana Classified Forest and Wildlands Program, a preferential forest property tax program. Absentee owners who are members of a conservation organization were more likely than absentee non-member owners to have undertaken a variety of land management activities, including: undertaking wildlife habitat improvement projects, inspecting their forestland for invasive plants, pulling or cutting invasive plants, enrolling in the Indiana Classified Forest and Wildlands program, and obtaining a management plan.     

北京八达岭国家森林公园景观评价

近年来,旅游业成为促进城乡融合、推动居民就业的重要举措。许多内陆城市将投资的重心转向了辖区内有着独特地理优势的大面积林区,因此对森林公园景观进行评价对推动旅游业具有重要意义。本文以北京八达岭国家森林公园为研究对象,依据《中国森林公园风景资源质量等级评定》,基于层次分析法对森林公园风景资源建立评价体系,并提出相应意见。主要结论如下,(1)八达岭国家森林公园的风景资源质量等级综合评分值为49分,其中,森林公园风景资源质量、区域环境质量、旅游开发利用条件分别获评分值为29、10、10分,达到森林公园风景资源质量等级评定分值I级标准;(2)森林公园管理者和设计者在满足基本经济要求之上应更关注能够提供较大社会价值和心理价值的管理目标;(3)对于农村地区的森林公园,有必要促进适应家庭互动的娱乐活动。     

天然林可持续利用研究——以山西中条山国有林为例

探讨了天保工程10年天然林保护向何处去的问题。认为应充分利用天然林资源可再生的特性,掌握其规律,在保护为先的基础上,科学地经营利用天然林。主要措施:通过低产林改造建设生物能源林和中药材基地;利用抚育材发展菌类等森林食品;选择林相结构合理的林分培育大径材;依托自然保护区发展森林旅游业。     

集体林区林权制度改革对木材供给影响的实证分析

首先用probit模型对林农参与集体林区林权制度改革的激励因素进行了探讨,之后应用双重差分模型(DID)和处理效应(TE)方法深入分析了林权制度改革对木材供给行为的影响。研究结果证实,由于赋予林农更加完全和稳定的林地经营权和收益权,林权改革显著增加了木材的采伐量,对木材市场的供给起到了积极的促进作用,但对于改革前后产权制度变化不明显的竹林则不存在显著影响,同时提出要进一步分析林权改革给林农福利和森林资源带来的影响,还需更加长期的观察和研究。     

Editorial - Multiple-use forestry

The problem of multiple-use forestry arises because (1) a forest can be managed to provide a wide range of products and services, (2) the different uses are not perfectly compatible with each other, and (3) some products are not priced in markets and many of the services a forest provides have the characteristics of public goods. Examples of major forest products include, in addition to timber, edible berries, fungi, and hunting games. Forests also provide recreation opportunities and various environmental services (such as regulating local climate, reducing soil erosion, reducing pollutants in the atmosphere, regulating the global climate, providing habitats for wildlife, etc.). The outputs of nontimber goods in general depend on the quantity and structure of the forest, which can be changed by various forest management activities. However, a forest state most suitable for the production of one good is usually not optimal with respect to another good. Typically, there does not exist a set of management activities that simultaneously maximize the outputs of timber and all other goods.Another way to understand the conflicts between different uses is to view standing timber as an intermediate product of forestry investment, which is employed as an “input” for the production of timber products and nontimber goods. Thinking in this way, the conflicts arise partly because timber production and nontimber uses compete for the same input, and partly because of the differences in the “production technology” among different nontimber goods. A change in the standing timber may have positive impacts on some nontimber uses, but have negative effects on others. Because of the conflicts among different uses, it requires that both timber products and nontimber goods should be explicitly incorporated into forestry decision-making in order to achieve the greatest benefits to the forest owner and/or the public.Most of the economic analyses of multiple-use forestry decisions have explicitly or implicitly adopted the view that multiple-use should be achieved in individual stands. Each stand should be managed to produce an optimal mix of timber products and nontimber goods. Another view of multiple-use forestry is to manage each stand for a primary use, whereas multiple-use concerns are addressed by allocating different stands in a forest to different uses. A general argument in support of the primary-use view is that specialization makes for efficiency. The production of timber and nontimber goods is a joint process, however. Strictly speaking, one cannot separate timber production and the production of different nontimber goods. For example, managing a stand for timber production does not exclude the possibility of producing some nontimber goods in the stand. Since every stand usually produces more than one product, efficient multiple-use forestry requires that each stand should be managed for an optimal mix of timber and nontimber outputs. On the other hand, it may well be the case that the optimal multiple-use mix for a particular stand consists of a maximum output of one product. In this case the optimal multiple-use management decision would coincide with the optimal decision pertaining to a single use. In other words, it may be optimal to manage a particular stand for one primary use. Using the terminology of economics, primary-use may be efficient for stands in which the multiple-use production set is nonconvex. Recent research has explored several sources of nonconvexity in the multiple-use production set. However, there is no evidence supporting the argument that specialization is always more efficient than multiple-use management of individual stands. From an economics viewpoint, efficient primary-use is special cases of multiple-use stand management.A widely recognized limitation of multiple-use stand management is that, by considering each stand separately, one neglects the interdependence of nontimber benefits and ecological interactions among individual stands. The nontimber benefits of a stand depend on the output of nontimber goods from other stands. Likewise, the nontimber output from one stand affects the value of nontimber goods produced in the other stands. Ecological interactions among individual stands imply that the output of nontimber goods from two stands in a forest differs from the sum of the outputs from two isolated stands. These interdependence and interactions imply that the relationship between the nontimber benefits of a stand and the stand age (or standing timber stock) cannot be unambiguously determined - it depends on the flow of nontimber goods produced in the surrounding stands. Therefore, it is improper to determine optimal decisions for the individual stands independently. In stead, efficient multiple-use forestry decision should be analyzed by considering all the stands in a forest simultaneously.Another serious limitation of multiple-use stand management is that each stand is treated as a homogenous management unit to be managed according to a uniform management regime. One implicitly assumes that the boundaries of each stand is exogenously given and will remain unchanged over time. This assumption imposes a restriction on the multiple-use production set, thereby creates inefficiency. As an example, consider a large stand with a nonconvex production set. It may be possible to eliminate nonconvexity in the production set and push the production possibility frontier outwards by dividing the stand into several parts and managing each part for a primary-use. It may also be efficient to combine two adjacent stands into one to be managed following a uniform regime, because of the presences of fixed management costs, and/or because the relationship between some nontimber outputs and stand area is not linear.In contrast to income from timber production, nontimber goods produced at different time points are not perfect substitutes. The rate at which a forest owner is willing to substitute a nontimber good produced at one time point for that produced at another time point changes with the outputs of the nontimber good at the two time points. In general cases, the nontimber goods produced at one time point cannot be consumed at another time point, and the marginal utility of a nontimber good decreases when its output increases. This provides a motivation for reducing the variation in the output of nontimber goods over time. An effective approach to coordinating nontimber outputs over time is to apply different management regimes to different parts of a stand, or apply the same regime to adjacent stands, which would change the boundaries of the stands. Preserving the existing stand boundaries would limit the possibility of evening out the nontimber outputs over time, and thereby lead to intertemporal inefficiency in multiple-use management.In previous studies of multiple-use forestry decisions the nontimber outputs or benefits are usually modeled as functions of stand age or standing timber stock. Future flows of nontimber goods or benefits are incorporated into a stand/forest harvest decision model to explore the implications of nontimber uses for optimal harvest decisions. While stand age and standing timber stock may have significant impacts on nontimber outputs, other forest state variables, e. g. the spatial distribution of stands of different ages/species, may be of great importance to the production of nontimber goods. Recognition of such forest state variables could change the relationship between timber production and nontimber outputs and therefore change the optimal forest management decisions.In summary, multiple-use forestry is not simply an extension of timber management with additional flows of benefits to be considered when evaluating alternative management regimes. Recognition of multiple uses of a forest leads to two fundamental changes of the forestry decision problem. First, the optimal intertemporal consumption of forestry income is no longer separable from forest management decisions. In general, the optimal intertemporal consumption of forestry income depends on future flows of nontimber goods, implying that the consumption-saving decision should be made simultaneously with the decision on the production of timber and nontimber goods over time. Secondly, it is no longer appropriate to optimize the management regime for each stand separately. The nontimber outputs from a forest depend on the age distribution of individual stands, and on a wide range of other forest state variables such as the spatial distribution of stands of different ages and tree-species composition. Ecological interactions and interdependence among stands imply that management regimes for different stands should be optimized simultaneously. In addition to changing rotation ages and harvest levels, efficient multiple-use forestry requires optimizing the spatial allocation of harvests, redefining the boundaries of stands, coordinating the choices of tree species in regeneration of harvested area and so on.The lack of rigorous production functions for nontimber goods imposes a severe restriction on attempts to perform comprehensive economic analyses of multiple-use forestry decisions. This restriction in itself is no justification for ignoring many of the key aspects of multiple-use forestry problem and modeling the problem as one of determining the optimal rotation age or optimal harvest level. It requires that economic models of multiple-use forestry should be developed with special consideration of the vague and imprecise information regarding the relationships between nontimber outputs and forest state variables.Peichen GongDepartment of Forest EconomicsSE-90183 UmeåSweden     

世界森林生态系统的商品和服务评价

森林生态系统为人类提供了众多的商品和服务。商品性的木材生产是重要的全球性产业,木材燃料是当前主要的非化石能源,在可预见的未来,它将仍具有极大的重要性。森林的生物多样性在它拥有的效能是一种商品。森林在地球碳循环中起着中心作用,形成了最大的陆地碳库。在水源保护方面,森林提供了多种有价值的服务,森林的损失已使得世界的水源受到极大的影响。     

How forestland size affects household profits from timber harvests: A case-study in China’s Southern collective forest area

To improve the economies of scale in forest management and reduce the fragmentation of forestland, the Chinese central government has implemented a collective forest tenure supplementary reform since 2008. This has included a series of policies for motivating transfer of forestlands use rights among households in the country’s Southern Collective Forest Area (SCFA). However, to date there is little evidence that large-scale forest owners can earn more profits from timber harvests than small-scale forest owners in the SCFA. Using data collected from household surveys in the three of the SCFA’s provinces in 2016, this paper examines the return to scale of forestland ownership for timber harvests in this region, and how the scale of forestland ownership affects households’ profits from timber harvests. The results show a constant return to scale in timber harvests in the case provinces in China’s SCFA, that forestland area makes the most important contribution to the output of timber harvests, and that fragmentation of forestland results in lower profits from timber harvests. It appears that a moderate scale of forestland ownership should be identified for increasing the profits from timber harvests. With the rapid urbanization throughout China, an increase in off-farm employment among rural household members has a negative impact on timber harvests in the region. We argue that policymakers should realize the importance of encouraging the forestland transfers and improve the concentration of forestlands in the next stage of forest tenure rights reform in China’s SCFA.     

On the Productivity of Public Forests: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Mississippi School Trust Timber Production

This paper presents the results of a stochastic frontier analysis on the technical efficiency of school trust timber production in Mississippi. The state of Mississippi has a 200‐year history of managing public trust lands designated to generate funds for public schools. Local school boards became the trustees of sixteenth section lands in the 1970s and have since supervised substantial increases in timber receipts. The majority of the timber management services are contracted to the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC)—a state agency responsible for, among other things, overseeing sixteenth section timber management. The school districts and the MFC are legally required to maximize revenue from these lands. However, school districts are also legally permitted to outsource forestry services to private vendors and do so on a regular basis by recommendation from the MFC. This paper finds that the average technical efficiency of the sixteenth section lands is 46%, and there is a positive and statistically significant increase in total timber receipts when a higher proportion of management services are outsourced. Le présent article présente les résultats d'une analyse frontière stochastique de l'efficacité technique de la production de matières ligneuses sur les lots réservés aux écoles publiques dans l'État du Mississippi. Cet État possède deux cents ans d'histoire en gestion de terres publiques destinées au financement des écoles publiques. Les conseils scolaires locaux sont devenus les administrateurs des lots numéro 16 dans les années 1970 et gèrent depuis des augmentations substantielles de revenus tirés de la forêt. La majorité des services de gestion des matières ligneuses sont confiés à la Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC), agence d'État chargée, entre autres, de la gestion de la matière ligneuse des lots numéro 16. Les arrondissements scolaires et la MFC sont légalement tenus de maximiser les revenus de ces lots. Les arrondissements scolaires peuvent, en vertu de la loi, confier les services forestiers à des entreprises privées, ce qu'ils font régulièrement sur recommandation de la MFC. Les résultats du présent article ont montré une efficacité technique moyenne des lots numéro 16 de 46% et une augmentation statistiquement significative et positive des revenus totaux tirés de la forêt lorsqu'une grande partie des services de gestion étaient impartis.     

Integrating a random utility model for non-timber forest users into a strategic forest planning model

In this paper, we developed a mixed-integer non-linear programming model that integrates access road development and a utility theoretic spatial choice model of hunters into a strategic forest harvest-scheduling model. The model was applied to an operationally sized Forest Management Agreement (FMA) area in central Alberta, Canada. The resulting behavioral model had approximately 2.6 million decision variables and about 96,000 constraints, and was used to examine the impacts of timber harvesting on hunters’ preference for hunting sites. We also evaluated the impacts of various levels of hunter welfare on: (i) the degree of tradeoff between timber and hunting benefits, (ii) timber harvest schedules, and (iii) the marginal costs of producing timber products. The results showed significant tradeoffs between timber and hunting benefits and a clear link between landscape characteristics and changes and behavioral responses by hunters.