Pressler's indicator rate formula as a guide for forest management

In this paper, it is shown that Pressler's indicator rate formula is also the optimal condition for the determination of the optimal harvest age under the generalized Faustmann formula. In addition, a modern treatment of the quantity increment, quality increment, and price increment is presented. Pressler's indicator rate formula is then applied to determine the optimal harvest age in a dynamic world of unanticipated changes.     

The multiple effects of carbon values on optimal rotation

Non-consumptive benefits which increase with crop age, like keeping carbon sequestered, lengthen optimal rotation compared with rotation for timber alone. High proposed carbon prices may extend rotation indefinitely. Carbon storage in wood products reduces this tendency. Biomass as an energy source displacing fossil fuels favours rotations near those of maximum biomass productivity. Use of sawn timber to displace structural materials with high embodied carbon favours somewhat longer rotations. Effects of rotation on soil carbon, and fossil carbon volatilised in harvesting operations, are further complications. Including all carbon effects results in optimal rotations somewhat longer than those based only on timber value, but shorter than those based on timber plus forest carbon. To include all factors intuitively is not possible: balanced appraisal needs economic calculations.     

Effects of litigation under the Endangered Species Act on forest firm values

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been a source of litigation and subject to court interpretation during the past several decades. In this study, event analysis was employed to examine the impact of six court decisions related to the ESA on the financial performance of U.S. forest products firms. The finding of abnormal returns revealed that all six events generated the expected positive or negative returns, and among them, four were statistically significant. Changes in systematic risk reflected the reaction of the stock market to the verdict announcements. Programs designed for habitat conservation can be implemented to compensate private landowners or firms for costs associated with protecting species on private forestlands.     

Assessing forest management strategies using a contingent valuation approach and advanced visualisation techniques: A Portuguese case study

The assessment of alternative forest management strategies should account not only for the private benefits to forest landowners but also for the ecological, environmental and economic benefits valued by society. There are a number of empirical valuation methods that may contribute to that assessment. These methods involve several steps: data acquisition, model specification and estimation. In this paper, this approach is illustrated in the context of a survey regarding alternative management strategies for a forest area in Central Portugal by implementing a contingent valuation experiment where an advanced landscape visualisation technique is employed to generate the visual information conveyed in the valuation scenarios. Several econometric model specifications are considered as well as alternative approaches to handle zero willingness to pay values and protest responses. The results obtained suggest the potential of the proposed approach for an effective comparison of alternative forest management strategies.     

Rewarding carbon sequestration in South-Western French forests: A costly operation?

The extension of rotation lengths in forests has been proposed as an option for increasing carbon storage and contributing to climate change mitigation. This paper presents the results of a case study conducted on forests located in the southwest of France. The aim of this research was to assess the cost effectiveness of a subsidy/tax system on carbon fluxes. First, it is shown that such a mechanism leads forest owners to extend rotation lengths. However, cost effectiveness analysis shows that: (1) marginal social costs are more expensive than the private marginal costs of carbon sequestration; (2) marginal costs are higher when carbon stocks are discounted, ranging from 170.1 €/tC to 719.8 €/tC with discounted carbon stocks; and from 38.8 €/tC to 78.4 €/tC with undiscounted carbon stocks; (3) marginal costs are in the range of measures of the social value of carbon for France; (4) marginal costs increase with timber prices and increase with discount rate.     

Further generalization of Faustmann's formula for stochastic interest rates

Markov decision process (MDP) models generalize Faustmann's formula by recognizing that future stand states, prices, and interest rates, are not known exactly. Buongiorno (Forest Science 47(4) 2001) presents a dynamic programming and a linear programming formulation of the MDP model with a fixed interest rate. Both formulations are generalized here to account for a stochastic interest rate. The objective function is the expected present value of returns over an infinite horizon. It gives, like Faustmann's formula, the value of the land and the eventual standing trees. The changes between stand states, prices, and interest rate, are represented by Markov chains. Faustmann's formula is a special case where the change from one state to another has 0 or 1 probability, and the interest rate is constant. The MDP model applies to any stand state, even- or uneven-aged, and the best decisions are tied uniquely to the current system state. An example shows the effects of recognizing variations in interest rate on the land expectation value, and the cost of ignoring them.     

Colonialism and conservation: Commercialisation of forests and decline of tribals in Madras Presidency, 1882–1947

This article attempts to analyse the colonial forest policy and its impact on the environment and tribals in Madras Presidency during the post-Forest Act period (1882–1947). During this period, the colonial regime has actively encouraged commercialisation of forest resources while several restrictions were clamped up on the tribals and other forest users. Here it is argued that the initiatives of the state towards conservation were primarily intended to curtail the access enjoyed by tribals and other forest users to facilitate commercial exploitation. Plunder of forest wealth continued unhindered in a systematic manner leading to denudation of vast stretches of green cover and a drastic decline in the living conditions of the tribals in Madras Presidency.     

Annual use, economic life and residual value of cut-to-length harvesting machines

Recognizing the absence of up-to-date empirical data on the economic life, the annual use and the residual value of dedicated cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting machinery, the authors gathered a large database of second-hand machine sale offers containing over 1000 records, coming from Europe and North America. The statistical analysis of these data pointed at an economic life in the vicinity of 18,000 h for both harvesters and forwarders, which confirms previous assumptions. The average annual use for the machines in the database is 1424 and 1581 h year⁻¹, respectively for the harvesters and the forwarders. Nordic users achieve a higher annual use than central European users, and the difference is statistically significant. Nevertheless, the average annual use recorded for both groups falls below the levels commonly adopted in current estimates, which may therefore represent ideal reference figures rather than actual averages. Residual value is strongly related to machine age, and the authors calculated some simple functions for estimating it. The study points at a better retention of the original value, compared to the figures reported in previous literature. At 5 years of age the harvesters and forwarders in the study keep respectively 38% and 44% of the new value. The information contained in the study is crucial to machine rate calculation, which has often been based on rule-of-thumb assumptions, in the absence of empirical data.     

Energy‐saving Technology Choices by Dutch Glasshouse Firms

This paper estimates a sequence of energy‐saving technology choices by Dutch glasshouse firms. The model allows for time‐constant, firm‐specific effects and serial correlation of errors and it is estimated on panel data over the period 1991–1995. The unobserved error sequences are simulated in the model in such a way that they are consistent with the observed choices. The results suggest that positive revenue shocks encourage adoption of new technologies. The choices also exhibit firm‐specific persistency over time. An increase of the price of energy encourages the adoption of a highly efficient energy‐saving technology. The probability of investing in energy‐saving technologies also decreases with capital invested in structures (e.g. double glazing of glasshouses) and increases with capital in energy installations.     

Can smallholder farmers adapt to climate variability,and how effective are policy interventions? Agent‐based simulation results for Ethiopia

Climate variability with unexpected droughts and floods causes serious production losses and worsens food security, especially in Sub‐Saharan Africa. This study applies stochastic bioeconomic modeling to analyze smallholder adaptation to climate and price variability in Ethiopia. It uses the agent‐based simulation package Mathematical Programming‐based Multi‐Agent Systems (MPMAS) to capture nonseparable production and consumption decisions at household level, considering livestock and eucalyptus sales for consumption smoothing, as well as farmer responses to policy interventions. We find the promotion of new maize and wheat varieties to be an effective adaptation option, on average, especially when accompanied by policy interventions such as credit and fertilizer subsidy. We also find that the effectiveness of available adaptation options is quite different across the heterogeneous smallholder population in Ethiopia. This implies that policy assessments based on average farm households may mislead policy makers to adhere to interventions that are beneficial on average albeit ineffective in addressing the particular needs of poor and food insecure farmers.