林地资源与林地资产比较研究初探

林地资源是林业生产的物质基础，随着我国市场经济体系的建立以及土地使用制度的完善，林地资源的资产特性逐渐为人们所重视，林地资源产权的评估、流转及其规范，成为当前林业发展的焦点之一；初步阐述了林地资源的基本内涵和属性，及其与林地资产的区别和联系；提出在林地资源利用过程中，既要考虑林地作为资源的特点又要考虑林地作为资产的特点，在两者发生冲突时，林地资产管理和利用应当服从林地资源管理的要求。     

次生林经营

论述了次生林经营改造的几大模式即:全面改造、带状改造、择伐改造、抚育间伐、封禁管护和栽针保阔;合理经营好次生林是提高森林质量、控制环境恶化、改善生态功能,使森林资源快速发展的主要策略。     

Valuing high altitude spruce-fir forest improvements: importance of forest condition and recreation activity

High altitude spruce fir forests are typical around the world and are often subjected to multiple forms of recreational use. In this paper, we use household and recreation group data for a spruce fir forest high in the Appalachian Mountains of the U. S. to evaluate the benefits from forest protection (i. e., from improving the forest condition). Our benefits estimation procedures use the referendum-type, contingent valuation (CV) approach of Cameron (1988). We modify the usual practice of obtaining a single willingness-to-pay (WTP) value by using alternative questionnaire scenarios and conducting tests to examine i) household and recreation group value sensitivity to forest condition, and ii) recreation group differences in WTP for forest protection. A first sample of southeastern U. S. households was asked to value a forest protection program for a spruce-fir forest showing no impact from insect disturbance or atmospheric deposition. The second sample was asked to value a protection program for a forest already experiencing impact from insect infestation and air pollution. Logit analysis of the two samples revealed no statistically significant difference in household WTP between the two forest protection programs. Further analysis indicated that consumptive forest users (i. e., hunters and anglers) held forest protection values that were sensitive to a change forest condition, while nonconsumptive forest users (i. e., campers and hikers) held values that were insensitive to the same condition change. Recreation group comparisons revealed that consumptive forest users also held lower values for forest protection than nonconsumptive recreationists. These results demonstrate the importance of estimating public values for forest protection in terms of heterogeneous groups rather than as a homogeneous whole.     

A country scale analysis revealed effective forest policy affecting forest cover changes in Cambodia

Considerable proportions of the remaining global forest areas are currently harboured in tropical countries. Reducing deforestation in this region is important to help mitigate climate change. Effective forest conservation approach is needed to reduce deforestation and degradation in these countries. Here, we investigated the forest conservation effect of community forests and protected areas using country scale data in Cambodia. In addition to these two forest conservation approaches, we also evaluated the effectiveness of protected forests, which are similar to protected areas but managed by different authorities. We compared deforestation between 2006 and 2016 in areas under the three forest conservation approaches and a non-conserved area by applying the inverse probability of treatment weighting with the propensity score minimizing confounding effects. The results showed that community forest, protected areas, and protected forest significantly decreased deforestation compared with non-conserved forests. Out of the three forest conservation approaches, protected forest was the most effective and community forest was the least effective. We conclude that all of the policies we evaluated are effective for forest conservation but the effectiveness varies depending on the approach. Our findings also suggest that the authority managing the given approach plays an important part in its effectiveness.     

The recreational services value of the nearby periurban forest versus the regional forest environment

Most previous valuation studies of forest recreational services using hedonic methods have focused on the direct proximity of housing to nearby forests while treating recreational services as homogeneous. However, households in urban and periurban areas may prefer diverse forest areas in their neighborhoods. The main objective of this study is to estimate and compare the impacts of proximity to forest recreational services based on the nearby forest and the regional forest environment, which includes spatially heterogeneous recreational quality. The regional forest environment is computed based on forest recreational services with respect to the travel time to housing. The empirical results show that differences exist between the forest valuations and their recreational services depending on which forest environment is considered. The size of the nearby forest is the only characteristic with a positive and significant impact on housing prices. Conversely, the regional forest environment positively influences housing prices based on certain parameters, such as large forest size, absence of protected areas and the existence of hiking and biking paths, which imply public access and maintenance.     

Aggregating forest harvesting activities in forest plantations through Integer Linear Programming and Goal Programming

The inclusion of criteria related to the spatial patterns resulting from forest harvesting activities is an important component of forest planning. Harvesting operations are more efficient when the harvesting areas are clustered. Therewith, it is possible to reduce the displacement of machinery and costs related to construction and maintenance of the road network. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate different strategies for aggregating harvesting stands in a forest plantation. We applied two Goal Programming approaches aiming at aggregating harvesting stands and an Integer Linear Programming model for including road investments into strategic forest planning.     

Missing the forest for the data? Conflicting valuations of the forest and cultivable lands

In reaction to Greenpeace campaigns denouncing the impact of oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) – a major actor in the palm oil sector – adopted a zero-deforestation policy. The implementation of this policy raised a simple, albeit tricky, question: what is a forest? In response, Greenpeace, GAR and a consultancy firm developed a methodology for forest classification called the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach. Employing a vegetation classification based primarily on a threshold of carbon sequestration, the method identifies which forested zones to protect from conversion to agriculture. While currently gaining resonance in the realm of sustainability standards, its implementation in Indonesia and Liberia encountered resistance and criticism by rural dwellers and social NGOs. How did HCS advocates integrate local peoples’ concerns, interests and claims to compose commonality? By analysing the HCS methodology's content, implementation and progressive adaptation, this article shows how HCS advocates favoured a specific mode of composition: one that fits a liberal grammar and that has specific implications on the valuation of forest and cultivable lands. The HCS approach is thus more than a data collection tool; it encapsulates and reinforces a particular vision of the environment and how people should relate to it.     

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.     

Sustainable locating of different forest uses

This study describes an approach whereby it is possible to promote social, ecological and economic sustainability by paying attention to the effectiveness of locating different forest uses and to anticipating conflict situations. It introduces a geographic information system (GIS) based method enabling the user to evaluate certain sub-areas in accordance with the requirements of each forest use to be practised in them. Moreover, the method enables the user to combine compatible forms of use and thereby to locate the areas most important from the point of view of the group of compatible forms of use. This information can be utilised when selecting small set-aside areas in commercial forests where wood production is not the main use form. Areas subject to use pressures from two or more incompatible forest uses can be found by comparing suitability maps of incompatible uses. Coming to a head of conflict situations can often be prevented by identifying those areas, which are subject to conflicting objectives. This method makes use of GIS tools when evaluating the sub-areas for the purpose of producing the required knowledge, and for combining and describing sub-areas in the form of suitability maps. The methods of multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) are used in evaluating and making commensurable the different objectives. The method produces theme maps describing (i) the best sub-areas from the point of view of compatible forest uses within a certain area and (ii) in the case of incompatible forest uses those sub-areas where the biggest conflicts can be expected. The method is illustrated by a case study in which the compatibility of the forms of use to be practised within a certain forest area are clarified and targets involving potential conflict situations are sought.     

Optimal forest management with sequential disturbances

Previous work in forest management under uncertainty has been based on the assumption that landowners face a risk of only one damaging event during any forest rotation, with the main result being that landowners choose shorter rotation ages. These models are universal in an assumption that, should the disturbance arise in a given rotation, the landowner salvages what is possible through a harvest and replants to begin a new rotation. However, a real possibility exists that multiple disturbances may occur in one rotation, with the landowner retaining the damaged stand thereby waiting through the first or even a subsequent disturbance to harvest and begin a new rotation. We develop a new approach for rotations models and choices that allows more than one event and flexibility in the timing of harvest, where tree recovery and damage may make continuance of the rotation, rather than starting over, a rent maximizing strategy. We thereby generalize the highly-cited body of literature based on Paul Samuelson's and William Reed's seminal contributions. Results demonstrate that failure to consider these new features leads to suboptimal harvest decisions and highly suboptimal land rent values. Important parameters are found to be arrival rates of future disturbances and survival proportions and growth rates after each disturbance.     

Spatial allocation of forest recreation value

Non-market valuation methods and geographic information systems are useful planning and management tools for public land managers. Recent attention has been given to investigation and demonstration of methods for combining these tools to provide spatially-explicit representations of non-market value. Most of these efforts have focused on spatial allocation of ecosystem service values based on land cover types, but recreation value has yet to be considered. This article presents an objective method for spatially allocating forest recreation value that is based on readily available data, demonstrates the method for a Southern California study site, and discusses the policy relevance of the method and how it might be extended to other applications and tested with additional primary survey data.     

Exclusive versus inclusive devolution in forest management: Insights from forest land allocation in Vietnam's Central Highlands

The devolution of forest management is high on the agenda in international forest policy. Devolution is generally conceived as a policy that aims to include a more diverse set of actors in forest management. One of the most problematic outcomes of devolution policies, therefore, is their tendency to exclude the claims of some local actors. This paper examines the exclusionary effects of devolutions in settings characterized by overlapping state and customary regulations and links these effects to exclusive notions of property and governance contained in particular devolution policies. The paper draws on insights gained in a pilot initiative of forest devolution in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Forest land allocation, as the initiative is called in Vietnam, took an exclusive approach to devolution by assigning ownership-type rights on forest to local actors, obliging those to protect the forest against encroachment by other actors, and centering governance in the state. In this particular case, exclusive devolution failed to diminish the gap between state and customary regulations, created conflicts among local actors, and contributed to forest loss. The unintended outcomes of exclusive devolution suggest the need for an inclusive approach to devolution that accommodates diverse kinds of overlapping claims made by multiple actors. The key elements of inclusive devolution are proprietary but not ownership rights granted to individual users and nested governance relations involving state and customary actors.     

森林碳汇价值实现对林地效益影响的路径及机理分析

森林在应对气候变化中具有特殊的地位和重要作用,国际社会努力为实现森林碳汇价值提供途径,探讨森林碳汇价值实现对林地效益可能产生的影响具有重要的理论和现实意义。本文在阐述森林碳汇价值实现对林地效益影响路径的基础上,分析了在森林碳汇价值实现的情境下,森林最佳轮伐期的变化情况,以及木材收益和碳汇收益的变化,最后得出林地效益的变化情况。     

Sustainable agricultural intensification in forest frontier areas

The Lore Lindu region in Indonesia—as in many forest frontier areas in Southeast Asia—has experienced rapid deforestation due to agricultural expansion in the uplands, at the forest margins. This has resulted in aggravated problems of erosion and water availability, threatening agricultural productivity growth. At the same time, technical progress is promoting agricultural intensification in the lowlands. In this article, we examine how improved technologies for paddy rice cultivation in the lowlands have affected agricultural expansion and deforestation in the uplands. The question of a “forest‐saving” or “forest‐clearing” effect related to technical innovation is important from a sustainable development perspective and remains a controversial issue in the literature. We address this question for the Lore Lindu region with an empirical model in which expansion in the lowlands and the uplands is estimated simultaneously. We use data from an extensive village survey conducted in the region, combined with GIS data. To guide the empirical analysis, we develop a theoretical framework based on a Chayanov‐type agricultural household model. The model analyzes farmers' land allocation decisions, taking into account the lowland–upland dichotomy in the agricultural sector. The empirical findings, corroborated by the analytically derived results, show how technical progress for lowland production affects land use at the forest margins and how these effects depend on the factor‐intensity of the technology. The findings imply specific rural development policies for sustainable agricultural intensification in forest frontier areas.     

Shifting cultivation and forest pressure in Cameroon

Shifting cultivation is often blamed as a principal cause of deforestation in tropical Africa. It is claimed that the practice is unsustainable because shortened fallow lengths result in soils too degraded to support forest vegetation. The decline in fallow lengths is often attributed to increases in population density and greater market participation. The conventional wisdom makes several claims that are as yet unsubstantiated. This article investigates whether there is evidence to support two of these claims in southern Cameroon. First, using both cross‐sectional and panel data, I find that there is indeed a robust negative association between fallow lengths and population density in the study area and weaker evidence for a negative relationship between fallow lengths and market participation. Second, a stochastic frontier production function approach is used to investigate the marginal contribution of fallow to output. Results indicate that fallow lengths are not low enough to be affecting yields and therefore do not appear to be resulting in declines in soil fertility. Thus overall, while some of the assumptions of the conventional wisdom appear to be true, there is little evidence to support its dramatic conclusion that shifting cultivators are causing deforestation in the forested region of Cameroon.     

Ecological ICMS enables forest restoration in Brazil

Application of ecological ICMS (Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços), by public managers in conservation, can help and foster environmental improvement in rural properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the destination of ecological compensation for restoration and appropriateness to the environmental legislation of rural properties in the municipality of Araponga, Minas Gerais (MG). Information on Areas of Permanent Preservation (APP) and Legal Reserves (LR) were obtained from the Rural Environmental Registry’s database. Plans on environmental appropriateness were evaluated and they are: dense planting, enrichment planting, plant spacing, fencing, artificial bird perches and transposition of soil seed bank. A total of 197.39 ha in APP is without forest (26.19 % of APP area) in the rural properties of the municipality of Araponga. In relation to LR, 566.92 ha (20.95 % of LR area) face conflict. The total costs, per year, for all forest restoration techniques were lower than the average value of ecological ICMS received by the municipality of Araponga (US$ 186,873.21 year⁻¹). Therefore, the ecological ICMS allocation to foment the practices of environmental appropriateness enables the compliance of forest legislation in small rural properties in Brazil.     

森林资源的资产化管理问题及对策

森林资源是国家最重要的自然资源,把森林资源作为资产纳入资产化管理,是适应市场经济发展的一项改革,也是科学合理开发利用森林资源、提高森林资源质量、保证森林资源可持续发展的优化高效的管理手段;结合当前我国的国情和林情,初步分析了森林资源资产化管理的必要性和问题,提出了加强森林资源资产化管理的具体措施和建议。     

Small forest landowner preferences for working forest conservation contract attributes: A case of Washington State,USA

In Washington State, small forest landowners (SFLO) play an important role in maintaining forest cover on the landscape as well as associated ecosystem services. This paper examines landowner preferences for the attributes of working forest conservation contracts (WFCC) using a choice experiment. The attributes examined are contract duration (from 10 years to perpetuity), forest management requirements, and the extent of forestland covered under the contract. We find that contract attributes are valued very differently depending on landowner objectives and harvesting behavior. Landowner characteristics and forestland spatial characteristics including distances to development and large public forestlands were found to significantly influence the likelihood of contract acceptance. While a significant portion of preference heterogeneity remains unobserved, we identify several key sources of landowner preference heterogeneity which allows for a better understanding of which landowners are likely to enroll in voluntary forest conservation contracts and may have implications for improved targeting of contracts.